Dedicated Health Care Provider (America's Health Rankings)

U.S. Value: 77.6% (2020); 84.1% (2021); 83.8 (2022).

Healthiest State: New Hampshire: 87.9% (2020); 90.9% (2021); 91.7 (2022).

Least-healthy State: Alaska: 65.6% (2020); New Mexico: 74.1% (2021); 73.4 (2022).

Definition: Percentage of adults who reported having a personal doctor or health care provider

Data Source and Years: CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2022

Suggested Citation: America's Health Rankings analysis of CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United Health Foundation, AmericasHealthRankings.org, accessed 2024.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

Individuals with a dedicated health care provider are better positioned to receive care that can prevent, detect and manage disease and other health conditions. Having a regular health care provider helps the patient and provider build a stable, long-term relationship that is associated with several benefits, including:

• Appropriate preventive care.
• Lower health care costs.
• Better overall health status.
• Fewer emergency room visits for non-urgent or avoidable problems.
• Improvements in chronic care management for asthma, hypertension and diabetes.

WHO IS AFFECTED?

According to America’s Health Rankings data, the prevalence of having a dedicated healthcare provider is higher among: 

• Women compared with men. 
• Adults ages 65 and older compared with adults ages 18-44.
• Non-Hispanic white adults compared with Hispanic adults.
• College graduates compared with those with lower levels of education; the prevalence is significantly higher with each increase in education level.
• Adults with an annual household income of $75,000 or more compared with those with lower levels of income; the prevalence is significantly higher with each increase in income level.
• Adults who have difficulty with mobility compared with adults without a disability.
• Straight adults compared with LGBQ+ adults.
• Adults who have served in the U.S. armed forces compared to adults who have not served.

GOALS

Healthy People 2030 has an objective to increase the proportion of individuals with a usual primary care provider.

https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/dedicated_health_care_provider/state/IN Last accessed March 2024.

Strategies for increasing the percentage of adults with a dedicated health care provider include:

• Expanding primary care capacity by empowering licensed personnel, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants, to provide more care.
• Enacting scope-of-practice laws that enable nurse practitioners to perform more primary care functions. Scope-of-practice laws lead to increases in the number of nurse practitioners per capita and higher yearly growth of the nurse practitioner workforce. 
• Reorienting health care systems to encourage patients to use primary care for new symptoms instead of seeking specialists with low-impact and high-cost procedures, which will also encourage capital investment in primary care.
• Reducing barriers to care such as lack of health insurance, high cost of care, poor geographic availability of services and lack of culturally competent care.

Source: https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/dedicated_health_care_provider/state/IN  Last accessed March 2024.

Factors such as access to transportation, travel distance, and the supply of primary care providers can limit people's ability to get primary care. For example, rural residents may need to travel long distances to get primary care and thus may be less likely to seek preventive care such as vaccinations. Additionally, primary care provider shortages and extreme demand often make it challenging for patients to get an appointment.¹³

Some obstacles include lack of health insurance,^7,8,9 language-related barriers,¹⁰  disabilities,¹¹  inability to take time off work to attend appointments,¹² geographic and transportation-related barriers,¹³ Limited provider office hours, and a shortage of primary care providers.¹⁴ These barriers may intersect to further reduce access to primary care.

Source: https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-summaries/access-primary-care  Last accessed March 2024

Primary care is critical for improving population health and reducing health disparities.⁴ Therefore, addressing barriers to accessing primary care may help reduce disparities and reduce the risk of poor health outcomes. For example, the National Health Service Corps supports the work of primary health care clinicians in areas of the United States with limited access to care, also called health professional shortage areas (HPSAs).²³ Digital solutions like telehealth can also improve access to primary care by reducing barriers related to transportation and expanding the ability to offer services in languages other than English.²⁴

Source: https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-summaries/access-primary-care  Last accessed March 2024.

https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/dedicated_health_care_provider/state/IN Last accessed March 2024