Table 1.
Characteristics of Male and Female PCPs and Their Visits with Patients (2017 Data).*
| Characteristic | Male PCPs | Female PCPs |
|---|---|---|
| Physicians | ||
| No. of physicians included in the analysis | 5284 | 3018 |
| Mean age (yr) | 53.2 | 46.5 |
| Specialty (%) | ||
| Internal medicine | 56.7 | 47.0 |
| Family practice | 42.5 | 52.4 |
| General practice | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| Academic degree (%) | ||
| M.D. | 87.1 | 83.3 |
| D.O. | 12.9 | 16.6 |
| Mean no. of sessions per week† | 7.9 | 7.9 |
| Patients and Visits | ||
| No. of annual visits | 16,422,457 | 7,969,353 |
| Age category %‡ | ||
| <15 yr | 2.8 | 4.0 |
| 15–24 yr | 3.9 | 5.6 |
| 25–44 yr | 14.4 | 18.8 |
| 45–64 yr | 33.9 | 35.0 |
| ≥65 yr | 44.9 | 36.5 |
| Female gender (%) | 49.7 | 70.0 |
| Married (%) | 54.9 | 51.2 |
| Race or ethnic group (%)§ | ||
| Non-Hispanic White | 76.1 | 73.0 |
| Non-White | 11.1 | 13.4 |
| Other or unknown | 12.9 | 13.6 |
| Type of payer (%) | ||
| Medicare | ||
| Traditional | 27.7 | 22.2 |
| Advantage | 13.7 | 11.7 |
| Medicaid | 7.3 | 8.7 |
| Medicare plus Medicaid | 4.8 | 4.5 |
| Commercial insurance | 43.0 | 49.6 |
| No insurance | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Other payer | 1.5 | 1.2 |
| Mean no. of chronic conditions¶ | 1.1 | 1.0 |
| Visit for low-acuity condition (%)‖ | 4.7 | 5.4 |
| Same-day visit (%) | 22.3 | 23.4 |
| Patient new to physician (%) | 21.8 | 23.2 |
Percentages are adjusted characteristic means that were calculated with the use of a regression of the characteristic on physician gender that included practice fixed effects. Characteristics of the patients were analyzed at the patient-visit level. Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding. PCP denotes primary care physician.
To determine scheduled sessions, each physician was specified as having a session, out of a possible 10 morning (7 a.m. to noon) or afternoon (noon to 7 p.m.) weekday sessions, if they had at least one visit time-stamped during that session (e.g., Monday morning) for at least 26 weeks of the study year. We then added the number of sessions that the physician had in a given week (range, 1 to 10).
Data regarding age were missing for four patient visits, one for male PCPs and three for female PCPs.
Race or ethnic group was reported by the patients in the electronic health record.
The count of previously documented diagnoses of chronic conditions was based on the Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse criteria of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The classification of a condition as low acuity (e.g., conjunctivitis and sinusitis) was based on the primary diagnosis code for the visit (Table S1).