North Carolina's HMO Provider Networks

A Comparison Between HMO Providers and All Physicians in the State

Abstract

The relative strengths of fee-for-service versus managed care are discussed. Trends occurring in health management organizations (HMO) enrollment for the United States and North Carolina are presented. The spatial distributions of North Carolina physicians associated with HMOs and all North Carolina physicians are compared using data aggregated from directories of HMO plans and from the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners. Physician distributions were compared for regional
concentrations (mountain, piedmont, and coastal) and undesirable locations. No dramatic differences were found to exist between the distributions of HMO and all physicians. This means that physicians, regardless of HMO status, were more apt to be located in urban and affluent areas. The bottom line, therefore, is that the geography of physicians remains largely unchanged with the rise of HMOs in North Carolina.