Analysis of Utilization, Cost, and Prescription Trends of Common Immunosuppressive Medications Among Medicare Patients 2013 to 2019.

Immunosuppressive medications are commonly used to manage dermatological conditions, including atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and bullous diseases. However, cost and adverse effect profile, including increased risk of infections, are important considerations.

Understanding the financial cost of cancer clinical trial participation.

BACKGROUND: Though financial hardship is a well-documented adverse effect of standard-of-care cancer treatment, little is known about out-of-pocket costs and their impact on patients participating in cancer clinical trials. This study explored the financial effects of cancer clinical trial participation. METHODS: This cross-sectional analysis used survey data collected in December 2022 and May 2023 from individuals with cancer previously served by Patient Advocate Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing social needs navigation and financial assistance to US adults with a chronic illness. Surveys included questions on cancer clinical trial participation, trial-related financial hardship, and sociodemographic data. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were conducted using Cramer's V to estimate the in-sample magnitude of association. Associations between trial-related financial hardship and sociodemographics were estimated using adjusted relative risks (aRR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) from modified Poisson regression models with robust standard errors. RESULTS: Of 650 survey respondents, 18% (N = 118) reported ever participating in a cancer clinical trial. Of those, 47% (n = 55) reported financial hardship as a result of their trial participation. Respondents reporting trial-related financial hardship were more often unemployed or disabled (58% vs. 43%; V = 0.15), Medicare enrolled (53% vs. 40%; V = 0.15), and traveled >1 h to their cancer provider (45% vs. 17%; V = 0.33) compared to respondents reporting no hardship. Respondents who experienced trial-related financial hardship most often reported expenses from travel (reported by 71% of respondents), medical bills (58%), dining out (40%), or housing needs (40%). Modeling results indicated that respondents traveling >1 h vs. ≤30 min to their cancer provider had a 2.2× higher risk of financial hardship, even after adjusting for respondent race, income, employment, and insurance status (aRR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.8). Most respondents (53%) reported needing $200-$1000 per month to compensate for trial-related expenses. Over half (51%) of respondents reported less willingness to participate in future clinical trials due to incurred financial hardship. Notably, of patients who did not participate in a cancer clinical trial (n = 532), 13% declined participation due to cost. CONCLUSION: Cancer clinical trial-related financial hardship, most often stemming from travel expenses, affected almost half of trial-enrolled patients. Interventions are needed to reduce adverse financial participation effects and potentially improve cancer clinical trial participation.

Patterns of Care for Medicare Beneficiaries With Metastatic Prostate Cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Therapeutic options for men with metastatic prostate cancer have increased in the past decade. We studied recent treatment patterns for men with metastatic prostate cancer and how treatment patterns have changed over time. METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results‒Medicare database, we identified fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries who either were diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer or developed metastases following diagnosis, as indicated by the presence of claims with diagnoses codes for metastatic disease, between 2007 and 2017. We evaluated treatment patterns using claims. RESULTS: We identified 29,800 men with metastatic disease, of whom 4721 (18.8%) had metastatic disease at their initial diagnosis. The mean age was 77 years, and 77.9% of patients were non-Hispanic White. The proportion receiving antineoplastic agents within 3 years of the index date increased over time (from 9.7% in 2007 to 25.9% in 2017; P < .001). Opioid use within 3 years of prostate cancer diagnosis was stable during 2007 to 2013 (around 73%) but decreased through 2017 to 65.5% (P < .001). Patients diagnosed during 2015 to 2017 had longer median survival (32.6 months) compared to those diagnosed during 2007 to 2010 (26.6 months; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Most metastatic prostate cancer patients do not receive life-prolonging antineoplastic therapies. Improved adoption of effective cancer therapies when appropriate may increase length and quality of survival among metastatic prostate cancer patients.

Racial and Ethnic Variation in Receipt and Intensity of Active Surveillance for Older Patients With Localized Prostate Cancer.

INTRODUCTION: The use of active surveillance (AS) for prostate cancer is increasing, and racial disparities have been identified in its implementation. We investigated differences by race and ethnicity in the utilization and intensity of AS by race and ethnicity among older men with low- and favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer, with particular focus on the integration of multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) into AS protocols. METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare fee-for-service linked database, we identified a cohort of men diagnosed between 2010 and 2017 with low- or favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer. The odds of receiving AS were compared by patient race and ethnicity using multivariable logistic regression models, while the rates of usage of PSA tests, biopsy, and mpMRI within 2 years of diagnosis among men on AS were assessed using multivariable Poisson regression models. RESULTS: Our cohort included 33,542 men. The proportion of men with low-risk disease who underwent AS increased from 29.5% in 2010 to 51.7% in 2017, while the proportion among men with favorable intermediate disease grew from 11.4% to 17.2%. Hispanic (odds ratio [OR] = 0.68, 95% CI 0.58-0.79) and non-Hispanic Black men (OR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.68-0.89) were less likely to receive AS than non-Hispanic White men for low-risk disease, while non-Hispanic Black men were more likely to receive AS for favorable intermediate disease (OR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.04-1.39). Non-Hispanic Black men receiving AS underwent prostate MRI at a lower rate compared to non-Hispanic White men, regardless of whether they had low-risk (incidence rate ratio = 0.77, 95% CI 0.61-0.97) or favorable intermediate-risk (incidence rate ratio = 0.61, 95% CI 0.44-0.83) disease, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The overall adoption of AS for low-risk prostate cancer increased among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. However, a significant disparity exists for non-Hispanic Black men, as they exhibit lower rates of AS utilization. Moreover, non-Hispanic Black men are less likely to have access to novel technologies, such as mpMRI, as part of their AS protocols.

Confounder-dependent Bayesian mixture model: Characterizing heterogeneity of causal effects in air pollution epidemiology.

Several epidemiological studies have provided evidence that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (pm2.5) increases mortality rate. Furthermore, some population characteristics (e.g., age, race, and socioeconomic status) might play a crucial role in understanding vulnerability to air pollution. To inform policy, it is necessary to identify groups of the population that are more or less vulnerable to air pollution. In causal inference literature, the group average treatment effect (GATE) is a distinctive facet of the conditional average treatment effect. This widely employed metric serves to characterize the heterogeneity of a treatment effect based on some population characteristics. In this paper, we introduce a novel Confounder-Dependent Bayesian Mixture Model (CDBMM) to characterize causal effect heterogeneity. More specifically, our method leverages the flexibility of the dependent Dirichlet process to model the distribution of the potential outcomes conditionally to the covariates and the treatment levels, thus enabling us to: (i) identify heterogeneous and mutually exclusive population groups defined by similar GATEs in a data-driven way, and (ii) estimate and characterize the causal effects within each of the identified groups. Through simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in uncovering key insights about treatment effects heterogeneity. We apply our method to claims data from Medicare enrollees in Texas. We found six mutually exclusive groups where the causal effects of pm2.5 on mortality rate are heterogeneous.

Does psychological distress predict risk of orthopaedic surgery and postoperative opioid prescribing in patients with hip pain? A retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Clinicians and public health professionals have allocated resources to curb opioid over-prescription and address psychological needs among patients with musculoskeletal pain. However, associations between psychological distress, risk of surgery, and opioid prescribing among those with hip pathologies remain unclear. METHODS: Using a retrospective cohort study design, we identified patients that were evaluated for hip pain from January 13, 2020 to October 27, 2021. Patients' surgical histories and postoperative opioid prescriptions were extracted via chart review. Risk of hip surgery within one year of evaluation was analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. Multivariable linear regression was employed to predict average morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per day of opioid prescriptions within the first 30 days after surgery. Candidate predictors included age, gender, race, ethnicity, employment, insurance type, hip function and quality of life on the International Hip Outcome Tool (iHOT-12), and psychological distress phenotype using the OSPRO Yellow Flag (OSPRO-YF) Assessment Tool. RESULTS: Of the 672 patients, n = 350 (52.1%) underwent orthopaedic surgery for hip pain. In multivariable analysis, younger patients, those with TRICARE/other government insurance, and those with a high psychological distress phenotype had higher odds of surgery. After adding iHOT-12 scores, younger patients and lower iHOT-12 scores were associated with higher odds of surgery, while Black/African American patients had lower odds of surgery. In multivariable analysis of average MME, patients with periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) received opioid prescriptions with significantly higher average MME than those with other procedures, and surgery type was the only significant predictor. Post-hoc analysis excluding PAO found higher average MME for patients undergoing hip arthroscopy (compared to arthroplasty or other non-PAO procedures) and significantly lower average MME for patients with public insurance (Medicare/Medicaid) compared to those with private insurance. Among those only undergoing arthroscopy, older age and having public insurance were associated with opioid prescriptions with lower average MME. Neither iHOT-12 scores nor OSPRO-YF phenotype assignment were significant predictors of postoperative mean MME. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological distress characteristics are modifiable targets for rehabilitation programs, but their use as prognostic factors for risk of orthopaedic surgery and opioid prescribing in patients with hip pain appears limited when considered alongside other commonly collected clinical information such as age, insurance, type of surgery pursued, and iHOT-12 scores.

Pharmacoinformatics-enabled Interventions Improved Care Coordination and Identified Pharmacy-Related Safety Issues in a Multicultural Medicare Population.

BACKGROUND: Compared to White populations, multicultural older adults experience more gaps in preventive care (e.g., vaccinations, screenings, chronic condition monitoring), social determinants of health barriers (e.g., access to care, language, transportation), and disparities and inequities (e.g., comorbidities, disease burden, and health care costs). OBJECTIVES: This study aims to describe an informatics-based approach used to execute and evaluate results of a member-centric, pharmacoinformatics-informed engagement program to deliver culturally tailored microinterventions to close medication-related gaps in care utilizing multidisciplinary care coordination that leverages the expanded role of the pharmacist. The operational framework will be described, and the influence of the medication use processes will be reported in a multicultural Medicare Advantage cohort. METHODS: A pharmacoinformatics framework was leveraged to conduct a retrospective, observational cohort analysis of the program. Claims data were used to evaluate the influence of medication use process microinterventions from a large Medicare Advantage cohort of members who self-identify as Black and/or Hispanic, and have type 2 diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension, and meet eligibility criteria for multidisciplinary (e.g., nursing and pharmacy) care management (CM) and received pharmacy referral from January 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023. RESULTS: A total of 3,265 Medicare Advantage members (78.3% Black and 21.7% Hispanic) received CM and pharmacy referral. Pharmacovigilance reviews conducted during this timeframe identified 258 acute events that escalated member CM. Provider outreach (n = 185) informed of safety issues (drug duplication, n = 48; drug interactions, n = 21; drug-disease interactions, n = 5; noncompliance and/or dosing issues, n = 27). Outreach to members (n = 160) and providers (n = 164) informed of open quality-related measure gaps for medication adherence. CONCLUSION: The application of pharmacoinformatics by a payor-led multicultural clinical program demonstrated quality improvements in Medicare Advantage member identification including risk stratification, timely outreach for pharmacy-related safety issues, and improved efficiency of multidisciplinary care coordination involving medication use process workflows.

Exploring kidney dialysis costs in the United States: a scoping review.

AIMS: The increasing prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States (US) represents a considerable economic burden due to the high cost of dialysis treatment. This review examines data from real-world studies to identify cost drivers and explore areas where dialysis costs could be reduced. METHODS: We identified and synthesized evidence published from 2016-2023 reporting direct dialysis costs in adult US patients from a comprehensive literature search of MEDLINE, Embase, and grey literature sources (e.g. US Renal Data System reports). RESULTS: Most identified data related to Medicare expenditures. Overall Medicare spending in 2020 was $29B for hemodialysis and $2.8B for peritoneal dialysis (PD). Dialysis costs accounted for almost 80% of total Medicare expenditures on ESRD beneficiaries. Private insurance payers consistently pay more for dialysis; for example, per person per month spending by private insurers on outpatient dialysis was estimated at $10,149 compared with Medicare spending of $3,364. Dialysis costs were higher in specific high-risk patient groups (e.g. type 2 diabetes, hepatitis C). Spending on hemodialysis was higher than on PD, but the gap in spending between PD and hemodialysis is closing. Vascular access costs accounted for a substantial proportion of dialysis costs. LIMITATIONS: Insufficient detail in the identified studies, especially related to outpatient costs, limits opportunities to identify key drivers. Differences between the studies in methods of measuring dialysis costs make generalization of these results difficult. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that prevention of or delay in progression to ESRD could have considerable cost savings for Medicare and private payers, particularly in patients with high-risk conditions such as type 2 diabetes. More efficient use of resources is needed, including low-cost medication, to improve clinical outcomes and lower overall costs, especially in high-risk groups. Widening access to PD where it is safe and appropriate may help to reduce dialysis costs.

Previous papers have studied the cost of treating patients who need dialysis for kidney failure. We reviewed these costs and looked for patterns. Dialysis was the most expensive part of treatment for people with kidney disease who have Medicare. Dialysis with private insurance was much more expensive than with Medicare. People with diabetes experienced higher costs of dialysis than those without diabetes. Dialysis in a hospital costs more than dialysis at home. There are opportunities to reduce the cost of dialysis that should be explored further, such as more use of low-cost medication that can prevent the worsening of kidney disease and reduce the need for dialysis.

State Department of Motor Vehicles Reporting Mandates of Dementia Diagnoses and Dementia Underdiagnosis.

Importance: With older drivers representing the fastest growing segment of the driver population and dementia prevalence increasing with age, policymakers face the challenge of balancing road safety and mobility of older adults. In states that require reporting a dementia diagnosis to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), individuals with dementia may be reluctant to disclose symptoms of cognitive decline, and clinicians may be reluctant to probe for those symptoms, which may be associated with missed or delayed diagnoses. Objective: To assess whether DMV reporting policies for drivers with dementia are associated with primary care clinicians' underdiagnosing dementia. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used data from the 100% Medicare fee-for-service program and the Medicare Advantage plans from 2017 to 2019 on 223 036 primary care clinicians with at least 25 Medicare patients. Statistical analysis was performed from July to October 2023. Exposures: State DMV reporting policies for drivers with dementia. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was a binary variable indicating whether the clinician underdiagnosed dementia or not. Each clinician's expected number of dementia cases was estimated using a predictive model based on patient characteristics. Comparing the estimation with observed dementia diagnoses identified clinicians who underdiagnosed dementia vs those who did not, after accounting for sampling errors. Results: Four states have clinician reporting mandates, 14 have mandates requiring drivers to self-report dementia diagnoses, and 32 states and the District of Columbia do not have explicit requirements. Among primary care clinicians in states with clinician reporting mandates (n = 35 620), 51.4% were female, 91.9% worked in a metropolitan area, and 19.9% of the patient panel were beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Among primary care clinicians in states with patient self-reporting mandates (n = 57 548), 55.7% were female, 83.1% worked in a metropolitan area, and 15.4% of the patient panel were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Among clinicians in states without mandates, 55.7% were female, 83.0% worked in a metropolitan area, and 14.6% of the patient panel were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Clinicians in states with clinician reporting mandates had an adjusted 12.4% (95% CI, 10.5%-14.2%) probability of underdiagnosing dementia compared with 7.8% (95% CI, 6.9%-8.7%) in states with self-reporting and 7.7% (95% CI, 6.9%-8.4%) in states with no mandates, an approximately 4-percentage point difference (P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance: Results of this cross-sectional study of primary care clinicians suggest that mandatory DMV policies for clinicians to report patients with dementia may be associated with a higher risk of missed or delayed dementia diagnoses. Future research is needed to better understand the unintended consequences and the risk-benefit tradeoffs of these policies.

Variation between surgeons in rate of reoperation after horizontal strabismus surgery among Medicare beneficiaries: associations with patient and surgeon characteristics and adjustable sutures.

Objective: To quantify variation between surgeons in reoperation rates after horizontal strabismus surgery, and to explore associations of reoperation rate with surgical techniques, patient characteristics, and practice type and volume. Methods: Fee-for-service payments in a national database to providers for Medicare beneficiaries having strabismus surgery on horizontal muscles between 2012 and 2020 were analyzed retrospectively to identify same calendar year reoperations. Multivariable linear regression was used to determine predictors of each surgeon's reoperation rate. Results: The reoperation rate for 1-horizontal muscle surgery varied between 0.0% and 30.8% among 141 surgeons. Just 7.8% of surgeons contributed over half of the reoperation events for 1-horizontal muscle surgery, due to the presence of high-volume surgeons with high reoperation rates. Surgeon seniority, gender, surgery volume, and use of adjustable sutures were not independently associated with surgeon reoperation rate. We explored associations of reoperation with patient characteristics, such as age and poverty. Surgeons in the South tended to have a higher reoperation rate (p=0.03) in a multivariable model. However, the multivariable model could only explain 16.3% of the inter-surgeon variation in reoperation rate for 1-horizontal muscle surgery. Discussion: Strabismus surgery is similar to other areas of medicine, in which large variations in outcomes between surgeons are observed. Future work can be directed towards explaining this variation. Conclusions: Patient-level analyses that fail to consider variation between surgeons will be dominated by a small number of high-reoperation, high-volume surgeons. Order-of-magnitude variations exist in reoperation rates among strabismus surgeons, the cause of which is largely unexplained.

Clinical and economic outcomes of assigning percutaneous coronary intervention patients to contrast-sparing strategies based on the predicted risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury.

OBJECTIVE: Contrast-sparing strategies have been developed for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients at increased risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI), and numerous CI-AKI risk prediction models have been created. However, the potential clinical and economic consequences of using predicted CI-AKI risk thresholds for assigning patients to contrast-sparing regimens have not been evaluated. We estimated the clinical and economic consequences of alternative CI-AKI risk thresholds for assigning Medicare PCI patients to contrast-sparing strategies. METHODS: Medicare data were used to identify inpatient PCI from January 2017 to June 2021. A prediction model was developed to assign each patient a predicted probability of CI-AKI. Multivariable modeling was used to assign each patient two marginal predicted values for each of several clinical and economic outcomes based on (1) their underlying clinical and procedural characteristics plus their true CI-AKI status in the data and (2) their characteristics plus their counterfactual CI-AKI status. Specifically, CI-AKI patients above the predicted risk threshold for contrast-sparing were reassigned their no CI-AKI (counterfactual) outcomes. Expected event rates, resource use, and costs were estimated before and after those CI-AKI patients were reassigned their counterfactual outcomes. This entailed bootstrapped sampling of the full cohort. RESULTS: Of the 542,813 patients in the study cohort, 5,802 (1.1%) had CI-AKI. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the prediction model was 0.81. At a predicted risk threshold for CI-AKI of >2%, approximately 18.0% of PCI patients were assigned to contrast-sparing strategies, resulting in (/100,000 PCI patients) 121 fewer deaths, 58 fewer myocardial infarction readmissions, 4,303 fewer PCI hospital days, $11.3 million PCI cost savings, and $25.8 million total one-year cost savings, versus no contrast-sparing strategies. LIMITATIONS: Claims data may not fully capture disease burden and are subject to inherent limitations such as coding inaccuracies. Further, the dataset used reflects only individuals with fee-for-service Medicare, and the results may not be generalizable to Medicare Advantage or other patient populations. CONCLUSIONS: Assignment to contrast-sparing regimens at a predicted risk threshold close to the underlying incidence of CI-AKI is projected to result in significant clinical and economic benefits.

Socioeconomic factors associated with use of telehealth services in outpatient care settings during the COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: To examine potential changes and socioeconomic disparities in utilization of telemedicine in non-urgent outpatient care in Nevada since the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This retrospective cross-sectional analysis of telemedicine used the first nine months of 2019 and 2020 electronic health record data from regular non-urgent outpatient care in a large healthcare provider in Nevada. The dependent variables were the use of telemedicine among all outpatient visits and using telemedicine more than once among those patients who did use telemedicine. The independent variables were race/ethnicity, insurance status, and language preference. RESULTS: Telemedicine services increased from virtually zero (16 visits out of 237,997 visits) in 2019 to 10.8% (24,159 visits out of 222,750 visits) in 2020. Asians (odds ratio [OR] = 0.85; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.85,0.94) and Latinos/Hispanics (OR = 0.89; 95% CI = 0.85, 0.94) were less likely to use telehealth; Spanish-speaking patients (OR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.63, 0.73) and other non-English-speaking patients (OR = 0.93; 95% CI = 0.88, 0.97) were less likely to use telehealth; and both Medicare (OR = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.89, 0.99) and Medicaid patients (OR = 0.91; 95% CI = 0.87, 0.97) were less likely to use telehealth than their privately insured counterparts. Patients treated in pediatric (OR = 0.76; 95% CI = 0.60, 0.96) and specialty care (OR = 0.67; 95% CI = 0.65, 0.70) were less likely to use telemedicine as compared with patients who were treated in adult medicine. CONCLUSIONS: Racial/ethnic and linguistic factors were significantly associated with the utilization of telemedicine in non-urgent outpatient care during COVID-19, with a dramatic increase in telemedicine utilization during the onset of the pandemic. Reducing barriers related to socioeconomic factors can be improved via policy and program interventions.

Health system implementation of the PROMIS Cognitive Function Screener in the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit: framing as abilities versus concerns.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive assessment is a required component of the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (AWV). In this prospective study, we evaluated acceptability and usefulness of a patient-reported outcome measure (the PROMIS® Cognitive Function Screener, or PRO-CS) to screen for cognitive impairment during the AWV. We compared two versions of the PRO-CS: Abilities and Concerns. METHODS: We developed PRO-CS Abilities and PRO-CS Concerns using items from the PROMIS Cognitive Function item banks. We partnered with a large health system in Pennsylvania to implement an electronic health record (EHR)-integrated version of the 4-item PRO-CS into their AWV workflow. PRO-CS Abilities was implemented in June 2022 and then replaced with PRO-CS Concerns in October 2022. We used EHR data to evaluate scores on Abilities versus Concerns and their association with patient characteristics. We gathered feedback from providers on experiences with the PRO-CS and conducted cognitive interviews with patients to evaluate their preferences for Abilities versus Concerns. RESULTS: Between June 2022 and January 2023, 3,088 patients completed PRO-CS Abilities and 2,614 patients completed PRO-CS Concerns. Mean T-scores for Abilities (54.8) were slightly higher (indicating better cognition) than for Concerns (52.6). 10% of scores on Abilities and 13% of scores on Concerns indicated concern for cognitive impairment (T-score < 45). Both Abilities and Concerns were associated with clinical characteristics as hypothesized, with lower scores for patients with cognitive impairment diagnoses and those requiring assistance with instrumental activities of daily living. Abilities and Concerns had similar negative correlations with depression (r= -0.31 versus r= -0.33) and anxiety (r= -0.28 for both), while Abilities had a slightly stronger positive correlation with self-rated health (r = 0.34 versus r = 0.28). In interviews, providers commented that the PRO-CS could be useful to facilitate conversations about cognition, though several providers noted potential limitations of patient self-report. Feedback from patients indicated a preference for PRO-CS Concerns. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest potential utility of the PRO-CS for cognitive screening in the Medicare AWV. PRO-CS Abilities and Concerns had similar associations with patient clinical characteristics, but the Concerns version was more acceptable to patients.

Understanding social needs screening and demographic data collection in primary care practices serving Maryland Medicare patients.

BACKGROUND: Health outcomes are strongly impacted by social determinants of health, including social risk factors and patient demographics, due to structural inequities and discrimination. Primary care is viewed as a potential medical setting to assess and address individual health-related social needs and to collect detailed patient demographics to assess and advance health equity, but limited literature evaluates such processes. METHODS: We conducted an analysis of cross-sectional survey data collected from n = 507 Maryland Primary Care Program (MDPCP) practices through Care Transformation Requirements (CTR) reporting in 2022. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize practice responses on social needs screening and demographic data collection. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted to determine factors predicting screening of all vs. a targeted subset of beneficiaries for unmet social needs. RESULTS: Almost all practices (99%) reported conducting some form of social needs screening and demographic data collection. Practices reported variation in what screening tools or demographic questions were employed, frequency of screening, and how information was used. More than 75% of practices reported prioritizing transportation, food insecurity, housing instability, financial resource strain, and social isolation. CONCLUSIONS: Within the MDPCP program there was widespread implementation of social needs screenings and demographic data collection. However, there was room for additional supports in addressing some challenging social needs and increasing detailed demographics. Further research is needed to understand any adjustments to clinical care in response to identified social needs or application of data for uses such as assessing progress towards health equity and the subsequent impact on clinical care and health outcomes.

Measuring Local-Area Racial Segregation for Medicare Hospital Admissions.

Importance: Considerable racial segregation exists in US hospitals that cannot be explained by where patients live. Approaches to measuring such segregation are limited. Objective: To measure how and where sorting of older Black patients to different hospitals occurs within the same health care market. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cross-sectional study used 2019 Medicare claims data linked to geographic data. Hospital zip code markets were based on driving time. The local hospital segregation (LHS) index was defined as the difference between the racial composition of a hospital's admissions and the racial composition of the hospital's market. Assessed admissions were among US Medicare fee-for-service enrollees aged 65 or older living in the 48 contiguous states with at least 1 hospitalization in 2019 at a hospital with at least 200 hospitalizations. Data were analyzed from November 2022 to January 2024. Exposure: Degree of residential segregation, ownership status, region, teaching hospital designation, and disproportionate share hospital status. Main Outcomes and Measures: The LHS index by hospital and a regional LHS index by hospital referral region. Results: In the sample of 1991 acute care hospitals, 4 870 252 patients (mean [SD] age, 77.7 [8.3] years; 2 822 006 [56.0%] female) were treated, including 11 435 American Indian or Alaska Native patients (0.2%), 129 376 Asian patients (2.6%), 597 564 Black patients (11.9%), 395 397 Hispanic patients (7.8), and 3 818 371 White patients (75.8%). In the sample, half of hospitalizations among Black patients occurred at 235 hospitals (11.8% of all hospitals); 878 hospitals (34.4%) exhibited a negative LHS score (ie, admitted fewer Black patients relative to their market area) while 1113 hospitals (45.0%) exhibited a positive LHS (ie, admitted more Black patients relative to their market area); of all hospitals, 79.4% exhibited racial admission patterns significantly different from their market. Hospital-level LHS was positively associated with government hospital status (coefficient, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.10 to 0.38), while New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois; and Detroit, Michigan, hospital referral regions exhibited the highest regional LHS measures, with hospital referral region LHS scores of 0.12, 0.16, and 0.21, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cross-sectional study, a novel measure of LHS was developed to quantify the extent to which hospitals were admitting a representative proportion of Black patients relative to their market areas. A better understanding of hospital choice within neighborhoods would help to reduce racial inequities in health outcomes.

National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale Reporting in Medicare Claims Data: Reporting in the First 3 Years.

BACKGROUND: Since 2016, hospitals have been able to document International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes for the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). As of 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services uses NIHSS as a risk adjustment variable. We assessed associations between patient- and hospital-level variables and contemporary NIHSS reporting. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of 2019 acute ischemic stroke admissions using deidentified, national 100% inpatient Medicare Fee-For-Service data sets. We identified index acute ischemic stroke admissions using the ICD-10-CM code I63.x and abstracted demographic information, medical comorbidities, hospital characteristics, and NIHSS. We linked Medicare and Mount Sinai Health System (New York, NY) registry data from 2016 to 2019. We calculated NIHSS documentation at the patient and hospital levels, predictors of documentation, change over time, and concordance with local data. RESULTS: There were 231 383 index acute ischemic stroke admissions in 2019. NIHSS was documented in 44.4% of admissions and by 66.5% of hospitals. Hospitals that documented ≥1 NIHSS were more commonly teaching hospitals (39.0% versus 5.5%; standardized mean difference score, 0.88), stroke certified (37.2% versus 8.0%; standardized mean difference score, 0.75), higher volume (mean, 80.8 [SD, 92.6] versus 6.33 [SD, 14.1]; standardized mean difference score, 1.12), and had intensive care unit availability (84.9% versus 23.2%; standardized mean difference score, 1.57). Adjusted odds of documentation were lower for patients with inpatient mortality (odds ratio, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.61-0.68]; P<0.0001), in nonmetropolitan areas (odds ratio, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.40-0.61]; P<0.0001), and male sex (odds ratio, 0.95 [95% CI, 0.93-0.97]; P<0.0001). NIHSS was documented for 52.9% of Medicare cases versus 93.1% of registry cases, and 74.7% of Medicare NIHSS scores equaled registry admission NIHSS. CONCLUSIONS: Missing ICD-10-CM NIHSS data remain widespread 3 years after the introduction of the ICD-10-CM NIHSS code, and there are systematic differences in reporting at the patient and hospital levels. These findings support continued assessment of NIHSS reporting and caution in its application to risk adjustment models.