The most common reason for visiting a health care provider is for routine care. Routine care is typically defined as a visit with a doctor or other health professional for assessing overall health, usually not prompted by a specific illness or complaint. Routine care appointments for this analysis have been defined as any appointment with a health care professional for care that was not needed right away.
This Statistical Brief analyzes data from the MEPS-HC Self-Administered Questionnaire to estimate whether adults were able to get routine care appointments as soon as they thought they were needed, as well as the extent to which health care providers listened to patients and offered clear explanations to them. The estimates compare experiences by age, insurance, and poverty status. All comparisons discussed in the text are statistically significant at the .05 level unless otherwise noted.