One in Three Docs Refuse Medicaid Patients

Government's scheme to expand coverage runs up against shortage of physicians willing to accept low payment

About one in three doctors across the country doesn't accept new patients who are covered by Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program that is supposed to enroll millions more low-income Americans as part of the Obama administration's health overhaul, according to a new government study.

Some 31% of physicians in a sample of 4,326 said they wouldn't accept Medicaid beneficiaries, economist Sandra Decker of the National Center for Health Statistics reported in an article in the journal Health Affairs published Monday. Most of the doctors cited the low reimbursement from Medicaid.