Schizophrenia, co-occurring substance use disorders and quality of care: the differential effect of a managed behavioral health care carve-out.
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This study explores the differential effect of a managed behavioral health Carve-Out (CO) on outpatient treatment quality for persons with schizophrenia (SCHZ) alone and co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD) (SCHZ+SUD). We used claims data from a state Medicaid program and employed a retrospective, quasi-experimental design with logit and difference in difference formula regression models. The results show the CO was associated with greater changes in treatment quality for the SCHZ population, compared to the SCHZ+SUD population. Most pronounced across both populations were decrements in receiving the psychosocial treatments for enrollees in the CO arrangement. (+info)
Do group practices have lower caesarean rates than solo practice obstetric clinics? Evidence from Taiwan.
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OBJECTIVE: This study examined physicians' propensity for caesarean deliveries at solo versus group practice obstetrics/gynaecology (ob/gyn) clinics in Taiwan. METHOD: We used population-based (National Health Insurance) claims data covering all 253 618 singleton deliveries conducted at ob/gyn clinics, during 2000-02. The dependent variable, delivery mode, was treated as dichotomous [caesarean section (CS) = 1, vaginal delivery (VD) = 0]. The independent variable of interest was practice size, classified into four categories: 1, 2, 3 and 4+ physicians. Multilevel logistic regression modelling, accounting for clinic-level variation in CS rates, was used to examine CS likelihood by practice size, among the total delivery sample and among the sub-samples disaggregated by obstetric complication status. RESULTS: Solo practices have 7% excess caesarean cases relative to large group practices. After controlling for patient's age, physician demographics, the clinic's geographic location and size of delivery service, and clinic-level random effect, solo practice physicians were 5.38 times as likely as 4+ physician practices to provide caesarean delivery (CI = 4.18 approximately 6.93), 2-physician practices were 3.87 times (CI = 2.99 approximately 5.01) and 3-physician practices 2.72 times (CI = 2.06 approximately 3.59) as likely as 4+ physician practices to provide caesarean delivery. This effect is driven by higher CS propensity among solo and small groups among cases with obstetrically less salient complications and the 'no complications' subset of patients. Wide confidence intervals for odds ratios in these sub-samples also attest to wide variations in clinic-level CS rates among these patient groups. CONCLUSIONS: Solo physicians are the most likely to provide caesarean delivery, and CS likelihood decreases with increasing number of physicians in the practice. Group practice support may reduce the CS likelihood, when it is not clinically indicated. Policy makers should consider initiatives to limit full service delivery privileges to group practice obstetric clinics, in order to reduce unnecessary CS. Solo practice clinics should, at best, be licensed as birthing centres, required to transfer patients needing CS to a larger facility. (+info)
Insurance coverage and subsequent utilization of complementary and alternative medicine providers.
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BACKGROUND: Since 1996, Washington State law has required that private health insurance cover licensed complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) providers. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate how insured people used CAM providers and what role this played in healthcare utilization and expenditures. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of insurance enrollees from western Washington in 2002. METHODS: Analysis of insurance demographic data, claims files, benefit information, diagnoses, CAM and conventional provider utilization, and healthcare expenditures for 3 large health insurance companies. RESULTS: Among more than 600,000 enrollees, 13.7% made CAM claims. This included 1.3% of enrollees with claims for acupuncture, 1.6% for naturopathy, 2.4% for massage, and 10.9% for chiropractic. Patients enrolled in preferred provider organizations and point-of-service products were notably more likely to use CAM than those with health maintenance organization coverage. The use of CAM was greater among women and among persons 31 to 50 years of age. The use of chiropractic was more frequent in less populous counties. The CAM provider visits usually focused on musculoskeletal complaints except for naturopathic physicians, who treated a broader array of problems. The median per-visit expenditures were 39.00 dollars for CAM care and 74.40 dollars for conventional outpatient care. The total expenditures per enrollee were 2589 dollars, of which 75 dollars(2.9%) was spent on CAM. CONCLUSIONS: The number of people using CAM insurance benefits was substantial; the effect on insurance expenditures was modest. Because the long-term trajectory of CAM cost under third-party payment is unknown, utilization of these services should be followed. (+info)
Challenges of using medical insurance claims data for utilization analysis.
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Research use of insurance claims data presents unique challenges and requires a series of value judgments that are intended to improve the data quality. In this study, medical insurance claims from 2 large companies were combined to assess utilization of complementary and alternative medicine. Challenges included assessing and improving the quality of data, combining data from 2 different companies with dissimilar coding systems, and determining the most appropriate ways to describe utilization. This article addresses 4 methodologic challenges in creating the analytic files: (1) conversion of claims into unique visits, (2) identification of incomplete claims data, (3) categorization of providers and locations of service, and (4) selecting the most useful measures of utilization and expenditures. (+info)
In search of the perfect comorbidity measure for use with administrative claims data: does it exist?
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BACKGROUND: Numerous measures of comorbidity have been developed for health services research with administrative claims. OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare the performance of 4 claims-based comorbidity measures. RESEARCH DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: We undertook a retrospective cohort study of 5777 Medicare beneficiaries ages 66 and older with stage III colon cancer reported to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program between January 1, 1992 and December 31, 1996. MEASURES: Comorbidity measures included Elixhauser's set of 30 condition indicators, Klabunde's outpatient and inpatient indices weighted for colorectal cancer patients, Diagnostic Cost Groups, and the Adjusted Clinical Group (ACG) System. Outcomes included receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy and 2 year noncancer mortality. RESULTS: For all measures, greater comorbidity significantly predicted lower receipt of chemotherapy and higher noncancer death. Nested logistic regression modeling suggests that using more claims sources to measure comorbidity generally improves the prediction of chemotherapy receipt and noncancer death, but depends on the measure type and outcome studied. All 4 comorbidity measures significantly improved the fit of baseline regression models for both chemotherapy receipt (baseline c-statistic 0.776; ranging from 0.779 after adding ACGs and Klabunde to 0.789 after Elixhauser) and noncancer death (baseline c-statistic 0.687; ranging from 0.717 after adding ACGs to 0.744 after Elixhauser). CONCLUSIONS: Although some comorbidity measures demonstrate minor advantages over others, each is fairly robust in predicting both chemotherapy receipt and noncancer death. Investigators should choose among these measures based on their availability, comfort with the methodology, and outcomes of interest. (+info)
Referrals to high-quality cardiac surgeons: patients' race and characteristics of their physicians.
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OBJECTIVE: To examine the referral process to cardiac surgeons in order to explain racial disparities in access to high-quality cardiac surgeons. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTINGS: All white and black Medicare fee-for-service patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery in New York State during 1997-1999. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of referral patterns for white and black patients in relation to the quality of the cardiac surgeon, measured by the surgeon's risk-adjusted mortality rate (RAMR), and in relation to characteristics of the physician providing the majority of cardiac care before the surgery. The average RAMRs of the surgeons to whom different physicians referred patients were compared using t-tests and paired t-tests. A hierarchical multivariate regression model was estimated to test hypotheses about the effect of physicians' characteristics on referrals of blacks to low-quality surgeons. DATA EXTRACTION METHOD: Variables were constructed from Medicare claims. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The differential in surgeons' quality for white and black patients is partially due to the physician providing the majority of cardiac care before the surgery. There is both across- and within-physician variation in referrals. Of the physician characteristics investigated, only the number of black patients referred to CABG and the percent of all cardiac referrals to the same hospital decrease the difference in surgeons' quality between whites and blacks. CONCLUSIONS: Several different pathways lead blacks to cardiac surgeons of lower quality. Further research is needed to understand the causes and inform policies designed to minimize disparities in access to high-quality providers. (+info)
Changes in the use of postacute care during the initial Medicare payment reforms.
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OBJECTIVE: To examine changes in postacute care (PAC) use during the initial Medicare payment reforms enacted by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. DATA SOURCES: We used claims data from the 5 percent Medicare beneficiary sample in 1996, 1998, and 2000. Linked data from the Denominator file, Provider of Service file, and Area Resource File provided additional patient, hospital, and market-area characteristics. STUDY DESIGN: Six disease groups with high PAC use were selected for analysis. We used multinomial logit regression to examine how PAC use differed by year of service, controlling for patient, hospital, and market-area characteristics. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: There were major changes in PAC use, and a portion of services shifted to settings where reimbursement remained cost-based. During the first reform, the home health agency interim payment system, home health use decreased consistently across disease groups. This decrease was accompanied by increased use in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Following the implementation of the prospective payment system for SNFs, the use of inpatient rehabilitation facilities increased. CONCLUSIONS: The shift in usage among settings occurred in two stages that corresponded to the timing of payment reforms for home health agencies and SNFs. Evidence strongly suggests the substitutability between PAC settings. Financial incentives, in addition to clinical needs and individual preferences, play a major role in PAC use. (+info)
Risk-adjusted cesarean section rates for the assessment of physician performance in Taiwan: a population-based study.
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BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, about one-third of all births nationwide in Taiwan were delivered by cesarean section (CS). Previous studies in the US and Europe have documented the need for risk adjustment for fairer comparisons among providers. In this study, we set out to determine the impact that adjustment for patient-specific risk factors has on CS among different physicians in Taiwan. METHODS: There were 172,511 live births which occurred in either hospitals or obstetrics/gynecology clinics between 1 January and 31 December 2003, and for whom birth certificate data could be linked with National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data, available as the sample for this study. Physicians were divided into four equivalent groups based upon the quartile distribution of their crude (actual) CS rates. Stepwise logistic regressions were conducted to develop a predictive model and to determine the expected (risk-adjusted) CS rate and 95% confidence interval (CI) for each physician. The actual rates were then compared with the expected CS rates to see the proportion of physicians whose actual rates were below, within, or above the predicted CI in each quartile. RESULTS: The proportion of physicians whose CS rates were above the predicted CI increased as the quartile moved to the higher level. However, more than half of the physicians whose actual rates were higher than the predicted CI were not in the highest quartile. Conversely, there were some physicians (40 of 258 physicians) in the highest quartile who were actually providing obstetric care that was appropriate to the risk. When a stricter standard was applied to the assessment of physician performance by excluding physicians in quartile 4 for predicting CS rates, as many as 60% of physicians were found to have higher CS rates than the predicted CI, and indeed, the CS rates of no physicians in either quartile 3 or quartile 4 were below the predicted CI. CONCLUSION: Overall, our study found that the comparison of unadjusted CS rates might not provide a valid reflection of the quality of obstetric care delivered by physicians, and may ultimately lead to biased judgments by purchasers. Our study has also shown that when we changed the standard of quality assessment, the evaluation results also changed. (+info)