Systemic Barriers to Medicaid Patients Accessing Specialty Care in New York

New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) has been active in a long-running campaign addressing the unequal delivery of outpatient specialty care at Academic Medical Centers (AMC) across New York City. NYLPI provided the Capstone team with anecdotal evidence that Medicaid patients seeking specialty care at AMCs are steered into a separate system of care. To create an analytical picture of AMC policies that could impact the care Medicaid beneficiaries receive, the Capstone team developed and distributed a survey to New York City health care providers. The team also conducted a review of Medicaid Managed Care plans in New York, compiling state-reported data, informational interviews, and analysis of plan-reported provider networks to provide quantitative data for NYLPI’s Segregated Care Campaign.