The ACA's Zero Cost-Sharing Mandate and Trends in Out-of-Pocket Expenditures on Well-Child and Screening Mammography Visits.

BACKGROUND: Starting in September of 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act required most health insurance policies to cover evidence-based preventive care with no cost-sharing (no copays, coinsurance, or deductibles). It is unknown, however, whether declines in out-of-pocket costs for preventive services are large enough to prompt increases in utilization, the ultimate goal of the policy. METHODS: In this study, we use a nationally representative sample of ambulatory care visits to estimate the impact of the zero cost-sharing mandate on out-of-pocket expenditures on well-child and screening mammography visits. Estimates are made using 2-part interrupted time-series models, with well-woman visits serving as the control group because they were not covered under the zero cost-sharing mandate until after our study period. RESULTS: Results indicate a substantial reduction in out-of-pocket costs attributable to the Affordable Care Act. Between January 2011 and September 2012, the zero cost-sharing mandate reduced per-visit out-of-pocket costs for well-child visits from $18.46 to $8.08 (56%) and out-of-pocket costs for screening mammography visits from $25.43 to $6.50 (74%). No reduction was apparent for well-woman visits. CONCLUSIONS: The Affordable Care Act's zero cost-sharing mandate for preventive care has had a large impact on out-of-pocket expenditures for well-child and mammography visits. To increase preventive service use, research is needed to better understand barriers to obtaining preventive care that are not directly related to cost.

Research on Disparities in Primary Health Care in Rural versus Urban Areas: Select Perspectives.

Much of the differences in health care outcomes can be attributed to the differential rates of primary health care utilization and resource allocation across population subgroups [...].

Multilevel Risk Factors for Hospital Readmission Among Patients With Opioid Use Disorder in Selected US States: Role of Socioeconomic Characteristics of Patients and Their Community.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: Using a multilevel framework, the study examines the association of socioeconomic characteristics of the individual and the community with all-cause 30-day readmission risks for patients hospitalized with a principal diagnosis of opioid use disorder (OUD). STUDY DESIGN: The study uses hospital discharge data of adult (18+) patients in 5 US states for 2014 from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, linked to community and hospital characteristics using data from Health Resources and Services Administration and American Hospital Association, respectively. A multilevel logistic regression model is applied on data pooled over 5 states adjusting for patient, hospital, and community characteristics. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Higher primary care access, as measured by density of primary care providers, is associated with reduced readmission risks among patients with OUD. Medicare is associated with the highest readmission risk (odds ratio [OR] = 2.0, P < .01) compared to private coverage, while Medicaid coverage is also associated with elevated risk (OR = 1.71, P < .01). Being self-pay or covered by other payers carried a similar risk to private coverage. Urban patients had higher readmission rates than rural patients. CONCLUSIONS: Patients' risk of readmission following hospitalization for OUD varies according to availability of primary care providers, expected payer, and geographic location. Understanding which patients are most at risk may allow policy makers to design interventions to prevent readmissions and improve patient outcomes. Future studies may wish to focus on understanding when a decreased readmission rate represents better patient outcomes and when it represents difficulty accessing health care.

Medicare Advantage and postdischarge quality: evidence from hospital readmissions.

OBJECTIVES: To compare relative readmission rates for beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) and traditional Medicare (TM) as suggestive evidence of changes in postdischarge care coordination and the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. STUDY DESIGN: We used the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 2009 and 2014 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases for 4 states with reliable sources of payment identifiers, linking these data to local area characteristics. Our outcome was the probability of a hospital readmission within 30 days of an index admission. We computed readmission rates overall and by subgroups, including for patients with multiple chronic conditions, by patients' state of residence, and by type of index admission. METHODS: We estimated linear probability models with hospital fixed effects including a wide array of patient-level characteristics relating to health status and sociodemographic characteristics. Standard errors were adjusted for clustering at the area level. RESULTS: Significantly lower all-cause readmission rates were found among MA enrollees relative to those in TM in both 2009 and 2014, suggesting an association between MA enrollment and higher quality of care. However, over the 2009-2014 period, MA enrollment was not associated with an increased reduction in readmission rates relative to TM. CONCLUSIONS: Although our focus was on a single measure of performance, the claims that managed care plans are spearheading changes in the delivery system are not supported by our finding that relative readmission rates were stable over the 2009-2014 period.

Medicare managed care and primary care quality: examining racial/ethnic effects across states.

The study assesses the role of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans in providing quality primary care in comparison to FFS Medicare in three states, New York, California, Florida, across three racial ethnic groups. The performance is measured in terms of providing better quality primary care, as defined by lowering the risks of preventable hospital admissions. Using 2004 hospital discharge data (HCUP-SID) of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for three states, a multivariate cross sectional design is used with individual admission as the unit of analysis. The study found that MA plans were associated with lower preventable hospitalizations relative to marker admissions. The benefit also spilled over to different racial and ethnic subgroups and in some states, e.g. CA and FL, MA enrollment was associated with significantly lower odds of minority admissions than of white admissions. These results may indicate a potentially favorable role of MA plans in attenuating racial/ethnic inequalities in primary care in some states.