Recent Study Found That More Than 25% of Medicaid Enrolled Physicians Never Saw a Single Medicaid Patient

A study published in Health Affairs found that a significant number of physicians enrolled in Medicaid never see a Medicaid patient – so-called “ghost” physicians. The research indicated participation in Medicaid varied widely by specialty. For example, more than 40% of psychiatrists were “ghost” physicians who saw no Medicaid enrollees in a given year, in contrast to primary care physicians, who were most likely to be high-volume “core” Medicaid participants. Other research has noted that Medicaid enrollees have a disproportionately higher need for mental health services compared to the overall patient population, which makes this statistic even more daunting.