Will commercial managed care patients accept residents as their primary care providers?

We conducted a telephone survey of patients in a university-based medical practice to determine if there was a difference across payer class in patients' willingness to have supervised housestaff physicians function as their primary care providers. Overall, commercial managed care patients were more likely to object to seeing housestaff physicians than were Medicaid or Medicare patients (50% vs 32% or 23%, respectively). However, prior outpatient care by a resident physician significantly increased patient willingness to be cared for by a resident. This effect of prior care by a resident was noted in the managed care as well as the Medicaid and Medicare populations. Although there may have been self-selection, our data demonstrate that a significant proportion of managed care patients who have had residents as their primary care providers are amenable to continuing this practice.