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High-Risk Travel Distance And Number Of Primary Care Visits In A North Carolina Medicaid Population, Justin Allred, Christopher Duffrin, Jason Brinkley, John Jones

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Background: With nearly 20% of the U.S. population in rural areas, a lack of access to primary care may cause rural residents to forego recommended preventive care procedures, and suffer higher morbidity rates than their urban counterparts.

Methods: Medicaid billing data from 2009 to 2011 were analyzed to calculate the distance and duration that a Medicaid patient population had to travel when seeking primary care in the 29 rural counties of eastern North Carolina. Primary care codes were analyzed to detect any differences in access patterns for various complexity levels of physician visits. Data were also used to evaluate health …