Chase Reece, BSHP '24

While at my internship today, I worked to finalize the health data and also collected physician data for each community. The physician data that was specifically collected included the number of primary care physicians, number of cardiologists, number of endocrinologists, physician rate per 100,000 residents, and the percentage of each that accept medicare and medicaid. Because the potential project is focusing on heart disease and diabetes, it is important to know what resources would be available to help within each community. Counties with the lowest health rankings, Worth and Candler, also had the lowest physician rate per 100,000 residents, at 30 and 37 respectively. In contrast, the community with the best rankings had a physician rate of 205 per 100,000 residents. Furthermore, a majority of the communities only had primary care physicians and no specialists. The acceptance rates for Medicare and Medicaid also greatly varied by community. For example, the percentage of those who accept Medicaid ranged anywhere from 31% to 100%, while Medicare acceptance varied from 62% to 100%. Low Medicaid acceptance rates is an issue that could heavily impact access to care for low-income, rural communities, and is something that should be given attention to. Overall, this data will be shared with our partners in the medical school to further assess what communities or potential projects are of interest or most needed.