Patients are increasingly alarmed by the health workforce shortages delaying care, reducing access, and in some cases harming patient safety and quality of care.

Policymakers usually rely on provider counts to estimate and address shortage areas. However, we know that not all providers accept all types of insurance.

More specifically, the greatest shortfall of available providers is experienced by some of the poorest and sickest among us. Nearly 94 million peopleopens in a new tab or window are covered by Medicaid, and secret shopper studiesopens in a new tab or window and physician reported surveysopens in a new tab or window show that doctors are less likely to accept patients with Medicaid compared to those with private insurance or even Medicare.

We know that simply having health insurance is not enough; we also need more healthcare providers willing to see Medicaid patients.

Newly available Medicaid claims data (T-MSIS) now allow us to systematically track providers that serve Medicaid patients, as well as those that don’t. The data on primary care providers is displayed […]