KEY FINDINGS In our study period, 2021 to 2022:
g For New Yorkers with high healthcare needs, regular access to a doctor’s office promotes high-value, continuous, and proactive primary care. Utilization of primary care settings such as doctors’ offices and health centers increased in 2022 for more advantaged New Yorkers (93%, up from 86% in 2021) but stayed steady for economically disadvantaged New Yorkers (78% in both years), widening the gap in primary care utilization. g Emergency rooms and urgent care centers also provide patients with timely care for urgent needs, although often at higher costs (both to patients and to healthcare systems). In 2022, economically disadvantaged, high-need New Yorkers continued to rely more on emergency rooms (29%) and urgent care centers (50%) than their more advantaged counterparts (11% and 44%, respectively). g Difficulty finding or making appointments may partially explain the higher rates of urgent care and emergency room usage among the economically disadvantaged. We find that economi- cally disadvantaged New Yorkers were less likely to find it easy to make appointments in 2022 than in 2021 (59% versus 67%, respectively) while more advantaged New Yorkers found it eas- ier to make appointments in 2022 (68%, up from 62% in 2021). This gap in the ability to make healthcare appointments has thus widened as well between less and more advantaged New Yorkers. g Although New Yorkers with high healthcare needs overall have experienced less difficulty getting to their healthcare appointments by 2022, those facing economic disadvantage were more likely to report transportation-related barriers than their more-advantaged counterparts (11% versus 4% in 2022) as a reason for difficulty getting to their appointments. g The propensity to seek healthcare, both overall and in certain settings over others, is informed by prior experiences with patient-provider interactions. Regardless of disadvantage, New Yorkers with high healthcare needs reported more positive clinical interactions with provid- ers in 2022 than in 2021, including that providers were more likely to listen to their concerns (among the economically disadvantaged, 80%, up from 72%; among the more advantaged, 79%, up from 65%). Nonetheless, in 2022, 14% of economically disadvantaged, high health- care-need New Yorkers reported avoiding seeking healthcare in the previous year out of fear of discrimination, unfair judgment, or disrespect, up from 10% in 2021. This was true of only 5% of the more advantaged, down from 7% in 2021.
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PLACES OF HEALTHCARE RECEIPT AMONG NEW YORKERS WITH HIGH HEALTHCARE NEED 3
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