Zhonghe Li

Effect of a Multipayer Patient-Centered Medical Home on Health Care Utilization and Quality: The Rhode Island Chronic Care Sustainability Initiative Pilot Program

IMPORTANCE The patient-centered medical home is advocated to reduce health care costs and improve the quality of care. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of the pilot program of a multipayer patient-centered medical home on health care utilization and quality. DESIGN An interrupted time series design with propensity score-matched comparison practices, including multipayer claims data from 2 years before (October 1, 2006-September 30, 2008) and 2 years after (October 1, 2008-September 30, 2010) the launch of the pilot program. Uptake of the intervention was measured with audit data from the National Committee for Quality Assurance patient-centered medical home recognition process. SETTING Five independent primary care practices and 3 private insurers in the Rhode Island Chronic Care Sustainability Initiative. PARTICIPANTS Patients in 5 pilot and 34 comparison practices. INTERVENTIONS Financial support, care managers, and technical assistance for quality improvement and practice transformation. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Hospital admissions, emergency department visits, and 6 process measures of quality of care (3 for diabetes mellitus and 3 for colon, breast, and cervical cancer screening). RESULTS The mean National Committee for Quality Assurance recognition scores of the pilot practices increased from 42 to 90 points of a possible 100 points. The pilot and comparison practices had statistically indistinguishable baseline patient characteristics and practice patterns, except for higher numbers of attributed member months per year in the pilot practices (31,130 per practice vs 14,779, P = .01) and lower rates of cervical cancer screening in the comparison practices. Although estimates of the emergency department visits and inpatient admissions of patients in the pilot practices trended toward lower utilization, the only significant difference was a lower rate of ambulatory care sensitive emergency department visits in the pilot practices. The Chronic Care Sustainability Initiative pilot program was associated with a reduction in ambulatory care-sensitive emergency department visits of approximately 0.8 per 1000 member months or approximately 11.6% compared with the baseline rate of 6.9 for emergency department visits per 1000 member months (P = .002). No significant improvements were found in any of the quality measures. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE After 2 years, a pilot program of a patient-centered medical home was associated with substantial improvements in medical home recognition scores and a significant reduction in ambulatory care sensitive emergency department visits. Although not achieving significance, there were downward trends in emergency department visits and inpatient admissions.

Impact of Financial Incentives for Prenatal Care on Birth Outcomes and Spending

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of offering US

Perception of Safety of Surgical Practice Among Operating Room Personnel From Survey Data Is Associated With All-cause 30-day Postoperative Death Rate in South Carolina

100 each to patients and their obstetricians or midwives for timely and comprehensive prenatal care on low birth weight, neonatal intensive care admissions, and total pediatric health care spending in the first year of life. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Claims and enrollment profiles of the predominantly low-income and Hispanic participants of a union-sponsored, health insurance plan from 1998 to 2001. STUDY DESIGN Panel data analysis of outcomes and spending for participants and nonparticipants using instrumental variables to account for selection bias. DATA COLLECTION/ABSTRACTION METHODS: Data provided were analyzed using t-tests and chi-squared tests to compare maternal characteristics and birth outcomes for incentive program participants and nonparticipants, with and without instrumental variables to address selection bias. Adjusted variables were analyzed using logistic regression models. PRINCIPLE FINDINGS Participation in the incentive program was significantly associated with lower odds of neonatal intensive care unit admission (0.45; 95 percent CI, 0.23-0.88) and spending in the first year of life (estimated elasticity of -0.07; 95 percent CI, -0.12 to -0.01), but not low birth weight (0.53; 95 percent CI, 0.23-1.18). CONCLUSION The use of patient and physician incentives may be an effective mechanism for improving use of recommended prenatal care and associated outcomes, particularly among low-income women.

Impact of the Cincinnati Aligning Forces for Quality Multi-Payer Patient Centered Medical Home Pilot on Health Care Quality, Utilization, and Costs:

Objective: To evaluate whether the perception of safety of surgical practice among operating room (OR) personnel is associated with hospital-level 30-day postoperative death. Background: The relationship between improvements in the safety of surgical practice and benefits to postoperative outcomes has not been demonstrated empirically. Methods: As part of the Safe Surgery 2015: South Carolina initiative, a baseline survey measuring the perception of safety of surgical practice among OR personnel was completed. We evaluated the relationship between hospital-level mean item survey scores and rates of all-cause 30-day postoperative death using binomial regression. Models were controlled for multiple patient, hospital, and procedure covariates using supervised principal components regression. Results: The overall survey response rate was 38.1% (1793/4707) among 31 hospitals. For every 1 point increase in the hospital-level mean score for respect [adjusted relative risk (aRR) 0.78, 95% CI 0.65–0.93, P = 0.0059], clinical leadership (aRR 0.86, 95% CI 0.74–0.9932, P = 0.0401), and assertiveness (aRR 0.71, 95% CI 0.54–0.93, P = 0.01) among all survey respondents, there were associated decreases in the hospital-level 30-day postoperative death rate after inpatient surgery ranging from 14% to 29%. Higher hospital-level mean scores for the statement, “I would feel safe being treated here as a patient,” were associated with significantly lower hospital-level 30-day postoperative death rates (aRR 0.83, 95% CI 0.70–0.97, P = 0.02). Although most findings seen among all OR personnel were seen among nurses, they were often absent among surgeons. Conclusions: Perception of OR safety of surgical practice was associated with hospital-level 30-day postoperative death rates.

Early Experience With Pay-for-Performance: From Concept to Practice

To evaluate the potential for a patient-centered medical home initiative to reduce utilization and cost while improving quality, we examined a natural experiment involving 11 primary care practices in Cincinnati, Ohio, that participated in the Aligning Forces for Quality Multi-Payer Patient Centered Medical Home pilot. Our research design involved difference-in-difference analyses, comparing changes in utilization, costs, and quality between patients attributed to pilot practices compared with those attributed to a matched comparison cohort after 2 years of active engagement by the practices. The Cincinnati pilot was associated with a reduction of ambulatory care–sensitive emergency department visits of approximately 0.7 per 1,000 member months or approximately 22.6% (p = .01). While there was a reduction in total costs of care of

Care in U.S. Hospitals — The Hospital Quality Alliance Program

7,679 per 1,000 member months, the difference did not reach statistical significance. After 2 years of the pilot, lipid testing in diabetics had increased by 2.7 percentage points (a 3.3% improvement; p < .0001). Patient-centered medical homes have the potential to improve the quality of care and reduce emergency department use but expectations for cost control in a relatively short time horizon and absent other changes may be unrealistic.