THE PROVISION OF PRIMARY-CARE - DOES MANAGED CARE MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Drawing on a nationally representative survey of physicians, this pape r examines the extent to which physicians split their time between pri mary care and non-primary care activities and whether managed care mak es a difference. We find that managed care does matter: Physicians hav e been narrowing their scope of practice, and the trend is linked to t heir involvement with managed care plans. These findings have implicat ions for workforce policy and training, regulation of managed care con tracting, and the quality of care.