Workforce Tracker Finds Large Variation in Healthcare Providers Offering Contraception Services Nationwide

WASHINGTON (September 1, 2021)—Access to family planning care improves health outcomes, quality of life, and economic and educational achievement. However, many women in the United States face substantial challenges in obtaining contraception services, and disparities exist along racial lines, rural and urban divisions, income and insurance status. Healthcare workers can help support or limit access to contraception services yet little is known about the strength or weakness of this workforce nationally.

Researchers at the George Washington University today launched an online tool that tracks the location and number of the U.S. contraception workforce, which includes obstetricians and gynecologists, nurse midwives, primary care doctors and others. This first-of-a-kind interactive map allows researchers, policymakers and others to compare states and counties with the goal of identifying gaps in access to family planning services, including prescriptions for the pill, the patch and other methods.

“Our workforce map will help identify gaps in contraception care,” Candice Chen, an associate professor of health policy and management at GW, said. “We hope that policymakers can use this tool to fill in some of those gaps and thus help provide equitable access to birth control and other essential services to women all over the United States.”

The U.S. Contraception Workforce Tracker was launched by the GW Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. Key findings from the tracker:  

• Access to providers who offer family planning services vary tremendously across the United States.
• The map shows there were 74 such providers per 100,000 women of childbearing age in Maine compared with just 30 contraception providers for the same level of population in New Jersey.
• Out of 3,006 U.S. counties, 1411 had no obstetrician/gynecologists or nurse midwives who provide this essential care to their patients.
• At the same time, the researchers note that 647 of those same 1411 counties had other providers who offered such care. For example, family practice doctors or physician assistants can also provide contraception services. Such providers can boost access to the pill, the patch, the ring and other contraception services, especially in underserved parts of the United States.

In addition to the online tracker, Chen and her colleagues at GW published a recent study, which used data from the online tracker, and found significant variation in the distribution, types of contraception and Medicaid participation of the family planning workforce. Chen notes that when healthcare providers do not accept Medicaid this can make it hard for women to find essential contraception services.

The study, “Who is providing contraception care in the United States? An observational study of the Contraception Workforce,” was published online August 19, 2021 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Both the interactive map and the new study were conducted by Chen and her colleagues at the GW Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity, which is based at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. The Mullan Institute works to help support a diverse and healthy workforce in the United States and globally.

 

To learn more about the U.S. Contraception Workforce Tracker, click here.