Nearly one-fifth of Medicare beneficiaries travel a long distance to visit a neurologist, according to a study published in Neurology. Chun-Chieh Lin, PhD, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional analysis using a 2018 Medicare sample of patients with at least one outpatient neurologist (N=563,216) visit to measure patient travel distance and travel time to neurologist visits. Seventeen percent of the Medicare beneficiaries traveled a long distance (50 or more miles one way) for care. The median driving distance and time were 81.3 miles and 90 minutes compared with 13.2 miles and 22 minutes for patients with and without long-distance travel, respectively. Long distance travel was most common for nervous system cancer care, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and multiple sclerosis (39.6%, 32.1%, and 22.8%, respectively). Low neurologist density (first vs fifth quintile), rural setting, long-distance travel to primary care physician visit, and visits for ALS and nervous system cancer care were factors associated with long-distance travel (ORs, 3.04, 4.89, 3.60, 3.41, and 5.27, respectively).
