Effect of Private Equity Ownership on Access to Outpatient Urologic Cancer Care in Medicare Recipients.
Urology
; 2024 Aug 15.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39153603
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To compare appointment availability and wait times between private equity-owned and non-private equity-owned urology clinics for 2 common urologic complaints.METHODS:
We identified all PE-owned urology clinic locations as of June 2022 (n = 390). For each PE-owned location, a geographically matched, non-PE-owned clinic was identified. Each office was called using a "secret shopper" method with a standardized script, requesting an appointment on behalf of their Medicare-aged father for evaluation of gross hematuria or elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA). The primary outcome was appointment availability, and the secondary outcome was wait time until soonest appointment.RESULTS:
PE-owned and non-PE-owned clinics treated the presenting complaints with similar frequency (gross hematuria 85% vs 88%, P = .3, elevated PSA 93% vs 94%, P = .5). Wait time in days until the next available appointment was similar for PE-owned clinics compared to non-PE clinics for both complaints (gross hematuria 16 vs 13, P = .06, elevated PSA 18 vs 19, P = .7). If available, the time in days until the soonest next appointment with an advanced practice provider was also similar between PE-owned and non-PE clinics (gross hematuria 13 vs 11, P = .07, elevated PSA 13 vs 12, P = .6).CONCLUSION:
Overall, there were no large-scale differences in access to outpatient urologic care between PE-owned clinics and non-PE-owned clinics. Access to care in PE-owned clinics is likely clinically similar to geographic-matched controls for Medicare patients with gross hematuria or elevated PSA.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Urology
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication: