Rural–Urban Disparities in Access to Medicaid-Contracted Pharmacies in Washington State, 2017

Details

• Journal Article:
  Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
• Personal Author:
  Graves, Janessa M. ; Abshire, Demetrius A. ; Undeberg, Megan ; Forman, Laura ; Amiri, Solmaz
• Description:
  Introduction
  
  Community retail pharmacies offer multiple public health services to meet the health care needs of medically underserved rural communities. Many rural residents are enrolled in Medicaid insurance, and it is important that pharmacies contract with Medicaid to meet the health care needs of these people. The objective of this study was to evaluate disparities in access to Medicaid-contracted pharmacies across the rural–urban continuum in Washington State.
  
  Methods
  
  We linked data on licensed community retail pharmacies in Washington State in 2017 to lists of state Medicaid-contracted pharmacies. We classified pharmacies as being located in small rural, large rural, suburban, and urban areas by using rural–urban commuting area (RUCA) codes. We evaluated the likelihood of zip code–level access to at least 1 pharmacy that was contracted with a Medicaid insurance plan across the rural–urban continuum by using descriptive statistics and modified Poisson regression models, adjusted for zip code–level community characteristics.
  
  Results
  
  Of 1,145 pharmacies in our study sample, 8.4% (n = 96) were not contracted with a Medicaid plan. Compared with urban core zip codes, small rural zip codes (adjusted relative risk [ARR] = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46–0.91) and large rural zip codes (ARR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.49–0.95) were significantly less likely to have access to a Medicaid-contracted pharmacy. Suburban zip codes did not differ significantly from urban core areas in their access to Medicaid-contracted pharmacies.
  
  Conclusion
  
  In Washington State, the likelihood of access to a Medicaid-contracted pharmacy decreased significantly as rurality increased. Policy efforts should aim to improve access for Medicaid enrollees, especially those outside urban centers.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Original Research
• Source:
  Prev Chronic Dis. 2020; 17
• ISSN:
  1545-1151
• Pubmed ID:
  32816659
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7458116
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  K23 MD013899/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  Washington
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  17
• Collection(s):
  Preventing Chronic Disease
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1ba9d1d1c92e354093a442f6fbd2cda06e62bcb0b66833a416a0bb669d851e8b33c21818bdeb3a5c99f589651c4476b2dadebb9660f686734025895a25285563
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/93367/cdc_93367_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 565.50 KB ]