Dedicated Health Care Provider - Women in United States

United States

Individuals with a dedicated health care provider are better positioned to receive care that can prevent, detect and manage disease and other health conditions. Having a regular health care provider helps patients build stable, long-term relationships with their providers that are associated with several benefits, including:

• Appropriate preventive care.
• Lower health care costs and fewer emergency room visits for nonurgent or avoidable problems.
• Improvements in chronic care management for asthma, hypertension and diabetes.
• Better overall health status.

A regular provider can help with care coordination and continuity, particularly for women, who often rely on at least two providers for routine care — a primary care provider and an obstetrician or gynecologist for reproductive care.

According to America’s Health Rankings analysis, the prevalence of having a dedicated health care provider is higher among:

• Women ages 35-44 compared with younger women. Prevalence increases significantly with each increase in age group.
• Non-Hispanic women of any race compared with Hispanic women.
• College graduates compared with those who have lower levels of education. Prevalence increases significantly with each increase in education level.
• Women with an annual household income of $100,000 or more compared with those who have lower incomes. The prevalence is higher with each increase in income level. 
• Women living in nonmetropolitan areas compared with those in metropolitan areas.
• Women who have difficulty with self-care and those who have difficulty with mobility compared with women who have other disability types.
• Straight women compared with lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer (LGBQ+) women.
• Women who have served in the U.S. armed forces compared with those who have not served. 

Additional research has found that populations of women more likely to report seeing a regular clinician for care include: 

• Privately insured women compared with uninsured women. 
• Women living in states that have expanded Medicaid compared with those in states without Medicaid expansion.

SStrategies to increase the number of women with 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., through 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 services.
• 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.

Healthy People 2030 has multiple objectives related to health care access and quality, including increasing the proportion of people with a usual source of care and increasing the proportion of pregnant women who receive early and adequate prenatal care.

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