Physician-based measures of Medicare access.

Physician payment reforms implemented in January 1992 have dramatically changed the way payments for services are determined under the Medicare Part B program. This paper presents new measures of access using physician-level data that provide a baseline for monitoring changes in access that might occur as these payment reforms unfold and that allow us to examine recent access trends. Our results suggest that Medicare beneficiaries as a group currently have a high degree of access to care, and that access generally improved between 1986 and 1990.