Dedicated Health Care Provider - Women

Dedicated Health Care Provider - Women in United States

United States

Primary care providers are specialized in establishing long-lasting relationships with their patients and are their medical point of contact, except in cases of emergencies. They diagnose, treat and prevent a wide variety of conditions in a way that is tailored to each individual patient. Having a dedicated health care provider, or a provider considered to be one’s personal doctor, is associated with elements of successful health care, such as improvements in the management of chronic conditions such as hypertension and high cholesterol. 

A regular provider can help with care coordination and continuity, particularly for women, who often rely on at least two providers for routine care (obstetricians or gynecologists for reproductive care and primary care providers for general health care). Studies have found that among women ages 20-64, those with a usual place of care and usual provider are about four times more likely to receive a clinical breast exam and cervical cancer screening than women without either.

Populations of women who are more likely to report seeing a regular clinician for their care include: 

• Older women (ages 50-64) compared with younger women (ages 18-49).
• White and Black women compared with Hispanic women. 
• Women with a household income at least 200% above the federal poverty level compared with women with a lower income. 
• Privately insured women compared with uninsured women. 
• Women living in states that expanded Medicaid compared with those living in a state without Medicaid expansion.

Strategies to increase the number of women who have a dedicated health care provider include:

• Reducing barriers to care such as lack of health insurance, high cost of care, lack of services due to geography or remote options (e.g., telehealth) and lack of culturally competent care.
• Increasing primary care capacity by empowering other care providers, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, to provide more care and increase the capacity of the primary care system.
• 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.

Increasing the proportion of people with a usual primary care provider is a Healthy People 2030 leading health indicator.

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Salganicoff, Alina, Usha Ranji, Adara Beamesderfer, and Nisha Kurani. “Women and Health Care in the Early Years of the Affordable Care Act: Key Findings from the 2013 Kaiser Women’s Health Survey.” Issue Brief. KFF, May 15, 2014. https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/report/women-and-health-care-in-the-early-years-of-the-aca-key-findings-from-the-2013-kaiser-womens-health-survey/.

Spatz, Erica S., Joseph S. Ross, Mayur M. Desai, Maureen E. Canavan, and Harlan M. Krumholz. “Beyond Insurance Coverage: Usual Source of Care in the Treatment of Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia. Data from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.” American Heart Journal 160, no. 1 (July 2010): 115–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2010.04.013.

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