Geographic Variations in Growth of Radiologists and Medicare Enrollees From 2012 to 2019

Abstract

Objective: Analyze changes in the number of Medicare-serving radiologists and Medicare enrollees nationwide and by geographic region and state from 2012 to 2019 to understand variations in allocation of imaging health care services over the past decade.

Methods: The number of radiologists submitting claims to Medicare was extracted from the CMS Physician and Other Supplier Public Use File Database. The number of Medicare enrollees by state was obtained from the Kaiser Family Foundation. National-, regional-, and state-level changes in rates of growth of radiologists, Medicare enrollees, and radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees from 2012 to 2019 were tabulated.

Results: The overall number of radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees was 79.7 in 2012, increasing to 79.9 in 2019. In 2012, the number of radiologists per 100,000 enrollees was lower than the national average in the South (66.9; 16% lower) and Midwest (79.1; 0.7% lower) and higher in the Northeast (98.3; 23% higher) and West (88.8; 11% higher). In 2019, the number of radiologists per 100,000 enrollees was lower than the national average in the South (69.8; 12% lower) only and was higher in the Midwest (81.4; 1.9% higher), Northeast (99.3; 24% higher), and West (80.2; 0.4% higher). By state, there was a 4.2-fold variation in the number of radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees, ranging from 38.8 in Wyoming to 161.4 in Minnesota (200.5 in Washington, DC).

Discussion: The growth of Medicare-serving radiologists and Medicare enrollees was stable nationally and demonstrated tremendous variations by US region and state. These variations bring to light potential implications for patient access to care and distribution of health care resources.

Keywords: Access to imaging services; Medicare enrollees; growth rates; health care resources; radiologists.