White male patients have it made when it comes to appointments

[MillCreek]

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/health-care-inc/2015/12/white-males-have-the-easiest-time-getting-doctors.html?ana=e_ptl_hc&u=G%2Fvun7sJocZR54r4qTedGQ00c85a73&t=1449266314

Embrace your privilege, #WhiteMalePatients!

I know nothing about the methodology of the study, but I note that self-pay patients had the easiest time getting appointments and Medicaid patients had the worst time.  I have to wonder if this is the driving factor.  When a patient calls into our call center, we do not know their ethnicity, although I suppose we can make some educated guesses as to gender and ethnicity from the patient name.  Most of the call center staff are Hispanic women, so I should probably ask them why they are discriminating against their sisters.

[Fly320s]

Huh.  Good customers get good service.  Who knew?

[Fitz]

People who pay their bills get better customer service? weird

[AJ Dual]

And I can think of a million other factors besides just "who can pay".

Men vs. Women might not care who their doctor is as much, and may not place a premium on who makes them "comfortable".

What's wrong, Rx-me, thanks, bye!... etc.  And as such might be more likely to go with the "first available doc" etc.

It might be second-order economic "privilege" at work. More likely to have a car, or more likely to live and work where the medical center/Dr.'s office is.

Could be cultural... Rosario's impressions of "going to the doctor" are when in the "old country" they had to sell the family goat to pay when Pepito got appendicitis..

Because believe me, if it were merely based on "who can pay" being the chief indicator of who was getting less/no service... we wouldn't be in this damn mess in the first place.

[Ben]

I'm curious how they know up front about who can pay. Generally when I make an appointment with a new doctor, or specialist or whatever, they don't ask me about insurance, at least not till after the appointment has been made.

Maybe it's because I sound like a cislord on the phone, so they know right away that they must defer to me. 

[RoadKingLarry]

The last time I made an appointment with my regular Dr. they asked me if I my insurance was Medicare. I've been with this practice for 15+ years through 3 different doctors.

[Calumus]

That's funny, as a white male self pay patient I have a hell of a time getting an appointment. It took me almost 4 months after moving to Florida to find a doctor that accepted self pay at all.

[BlueStarLizzard]

And I can think of a million other factors besides just "who can pay".

Men vs. Women might not care who their doctor is as much, and may not place a premium on who makes them "comfortable".

What's wrong, Rx-me, thanks, bye!... etc.  And as such might be more likely to go with the "first available doc" etc.

It might be second-order economic "privilege" at work. More likely to have a car, or more likely to live and work where the medical center/Dr.'s office is.

Could be cultural... Rosario's impressions of "going to the doctor" are when in the "old country" they had to sell the family goat to pay when Pepito got appendicitis..

Because believe me, if it were merely based on "who can pay" being the chief indicator of who was getting less/no service... we wouldn't be in this damn mess in the first place.

It's this.

Woman are also going to specialists more often than men. GP covers pretty much all the standard male medical stuff, including all your reproductive needs, unless something is actually wrong. And even what standard GP does cover is generally more invasive, time consuming, requires more equipment and more staff.
I imagine when the receptionists get a call from a guy for a basic office visit, they think"10 minutes for the nurse, 5 with the doctor, tack on an extra 10 minutes in case of special circumstances, done." and find a time slot pretty quickly. For a woman, they have to double the time and available staff, lowering the number of available appointments.