Medicare Patients Wait Average of 34 Days to See Neurologist After Referral

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 8, 2025 (HealthDay News) — After being referred by their physician, Medicare patients wait an average of 34 days to see a neurologist, according to study published online Jan. 8 in Neurology.

Chun Chieh Lin, Ph.D., from The Ohio State University in Columbus, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study using a 2018 to 2019 Medicare sample of patients with a new visit to a neurologist. The primary outcome was wait time between the last visit with a referring physician and the first visit with a neurologist. A total of 163,313 Medicare beneficiaries who had a new patient visit with a neurologist in 2018 to 2019 after being referred by their physician were identified.

The researchers found that the median wait time to the index neurologist visit was 34 days; 18 percent of patients waited more than 90 days. Compared with patients with back pain, those with multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, and Parkinson disease (PD) had to wait an average of 29.4, 10.4, and 9.3 days longer, respectively. No significant differences were seen in wait times across race/ethnicity and sex. No significant differences were seen in wait times across regions with varying levels of neurologist availability. The wait time was extended by an average of 11 days when patients visited a neurologist located outside of their residential or referring physician”s hospital referral region.

“Patients with MS, epilepsy, and PD had to wait longer to see neurologists despite requiring complicated care best provided by neurologists,” the authors write. “We need innovative approaches to improve timely access to neurologists.”

Several authors disclosed ties to the medical device industry.

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