Death ORACL: An Algorithm to Predict Death Using Insurance Claims Data.

The inability to identify dates of death in insurance claims data is the United States is a major limitation to retrospective claims-based research. While deaths result in disenrollment, disenrollment can also occur due to changes in insurance providers. We created an algorithm to differentiate between disenrollment from health plans due to death and disenrollment for other reasons. We identified 5,259,735 adults who disenrolled from private insurance between 2007 and 2018. Using death dates ascertained from the Social Security Death Index, inpatient discharge status, and death indicators in the administrative data, 7.6% of all disenrollments were classified as resulting from death. We used elastic net regression to build an algorithm using claims data in the year prior to disenrollment; candidate predictors included medical conditions, individual demographic characteristics, treatment utilization, and structural factors related to health insurance eligibility and coding. Using a predicted probability threshold of 0.9 (selected to reflect the corresponding known prevalence of mortality), internal validation found that the algorithm classified death at disenrollment with a positive predictive value of 0.815, sensitivity of 0.721 and specificity of 0.986 (AUC=0.97). Independent data sources were used for external validation and for an applied example. Code for implementation is publicly available.

Endocarditis, invasive dental procedures, and antibiotic prophylaxis efficacy in US Medicaid patients.

OBJECTIVE: Antibiotic prophylaxis is recommended before invasive dental procedures to prevent endocarditis in those at high risk, but supporting data are sparse. We therefore investigated any association between invasive dental procedures and endocarditis, and any antibiotic prophylaxis effect on endocarditis incidence. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Cohort and case-crossover studies were performed on 1,678,190 Medicaid patients with linked medical, dental, and prescription data. RESULTS: The cohort study identified increased endocarditis incidence within 30 days of invasive dental procedures in those at high risk, particularly after extractions (OR 14.17, 95% CI 5.40-52.11, p < 0.0001) or oral surgery (OR 29.98, 95% CI 9.62-119.34, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, antibiotic prophylaxis significantly reduced endocarditis incidence following invasive dental procedures (OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06-0.53, p < 0.0001). Case-crossover analysis confirmed the association between invasive dental procedures and endocarditis in those at high risk, particularly following extractions (OR 3.74, 95% CI 2.65-5.27, p < 0.005) and oral surgery (OR 10.66, 95% CI 5.18-21.92, p < 0.0001). The number of invasive procedures, extractions, or surgical procedures needing antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent one endocarditis case was 244, 143 and 71, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Invasive dental procedures (particularly extractions and oral surgery) were significantly associated with endocarditis in high-risk individuals, but AP significantly reduced endocarditis incidence following these procedures, thereby supporting current guideline recommendations.

Association Between Cost-Saving Prescription Policy Changes and Adherence to Chronic Disease Medications: an Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: Pharmacy benefit design is one tool for improving access and adherence to medications for the management of chronic disease. OBJECTIVE: We assessed the effects of pharmacy benefit design programs, including a change in pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), institution of a prescription out-of-pocket maximum, and a mandated switch to 90 days' medication supply, on adherence to chronic disease medications over time. DESIGN: We used a difference-in-differences design to assess changes in adherence to chronic disease medications after the transition to new prescription policies. SUBJECTS: We utilized claims data from adults aged 18-64, on ≥ 1 medication for chronic disease, whose insurer instituted the prescription policies (intervention group) and a propensity score-matched comparison group from the same region. MAIN MEASURES: The outcome of interest was adherence to chronic disease medications measured by proportion of days covered (PDC) using pharmacy claims. KEY RESULTS: There were 13,798 individuals in each group after propensity score matching. Compared to the matched control group, adherence in the intervention group decreased in the first quarter of 2015 and then increased back to pre-intervention trends. Specifically, the change in adherence compared to the last quarter of 2014 in the intervention group versus controls was - 3.6 percentage points (pp) in 2015 Q1 (p < 0.001), 0.65 pp in Q2 (p = 0.024), 1.1 pp in Q3 (p < 0.001), and 1.4 pp in Q4 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of commercially insured adults on medications for chronic disease, a change in PBM accompanied by a prescription out-of-pocket maximum and change to 90 days' supply was associated with short-term disruptions in adherence followed by return to pre-intervention trends. A small improvement in adherence over the year of follow-up may not be clinically significant. These findings have important implications for employers, insurers, or health systems wishing to utilize pharmacy benefit design to improve management of chronic disease.

Medicare Advantage Penetration and Hospital Costs Before and After the Affordable Care Act.

BACKGROUND: Research has suggested that growth in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program indirectly benefits the entire 65+-year-old population by reducing overall expenditures and creating spillover effects of patient care practices. Medicare programs and innovations initiated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have encouraged practices to adopt models applying to all patient populations, which may influence the continued benefits of MA program growth. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the relationship between MA program growth and inpatient hospital costs and utilization before and after the ACA. METHODS: Primary data sources were 2005-2014 Health Care Cost and Utilization Project hospital data and 2004-2013 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services enrollment data. County-year-level regression analysis with fixed effects examined the relationship between Medicare managed care penetration and hospital cost per enrollee. We decomposed results into changes in utilization, severity, and severity-adjusted inpatient resource use. Analyses were stratified by whether the admission was urgent or nonurgent. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A 10% increase in MA penetration was associated with a 3-percentage point decrease in inpatient cost per Medicare enrollee before the ACA. This effect was more prominent in nonurgent admissions and diminished after the ACA. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that MA enrollment growth is associated with diminished spillover reductions in hospital admission costs after the ACA. We did not observe a strong relationship between MA enrollment and inpatient days per enrollee. Future research should examine whether spillover effects still are observed in outpatient settings.

Was federal parity associated with changes in Out-of-network mental health care use and spending?

BACKGROUND: The goal of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act is to eliminate differences in insurance coverage between behavioral health and general medical care. The law requires out-of-network mental health benefits be equivalent to out-of-network medical/surgical benefits. Insurers were concerned this provision would lead to unsustainable increases in out-of-network related expenditures. We examined whether federal parity implementation was associated with significant increases in out-of-network mental health care use and spending. METHODS: We conducted an interrupted time series analysis using health insurance claims from self-insured employers (2007-2012). We examined changes in the probability of using out-of-network mental health services and, conditional on out-of-network mental health service use, changes in the number of outpatient out-of-network mental health visits and total out-of-network mental health spending associated with the implementation of federal parity in 2010. RESULTS: From 2007 to 2012, the proportion of individuals receiving any out-of-network mental health services each month declined dramatically from 18 to 12%, with a one-time drop of 3 percentage points at parity implementation (p < .01). Among out-of-network mental health service users, there was an increase in the number of visits per month (.12 visits; p < .01) and total spending per month ($49; p < .01) at parity implementation. Although there was a one-time increase in spending at parity implementation, this increase was accompanied by an attenuation of a trend toward increased spending growth, such that spending was back to original predictions by the end of our study period. CONCLUSIONS: Despite concerns expressed by the health insurance industry when federal parity was enacted, out-of-network mental health spending did not substantially increase after parity implementation. In addition, use of out-of-network mental health services appears to have contracted rather than expanded, suggesting insurers may have implemented other policies to curb out-of-network use, such as increasing access to in-network providers.

Examining the value of inpatient nurse staffing: an assessment of quality and patient care costs.

BACKGROUND: Inpatient quality deficits have important implications for the health and well-being of patients. They also have important financial implications for payers and hospitals by leading to longer lengths of stay and higher intensity of treatment. Many of these costly quality deficits are particularly sensitive to nursing care. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of nurse staffing on quality of care and inpatient care costs. DESIGN: Longitudinal analysis using hospital nurse staffing data and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases from 2008 through 2011. SUBJECTS: Hospital discharges from California, Nevada, and Maryland (n=18,474,860). METHODS: A longitudinal, hospital-fixed effect model was estimated to assess the effect of nurse staffing levels and skill mix on patient care costs, length of stay, and adverse events, adjusting for patient clinical and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Increases in nurse staffing levels were associated with reductions in nursing-sensitive adverse events and length of stay, but did not lead to increases in patient care costs. Changing skill mix by increasing the number of registered nurses, as a proportion of licensed nursing staff, led to reductions in costs. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings provide support for the value of inpatient nurse staffing as it contributes to improvements in inpatient care; increases in staff number and skill mix can lead to improved quality and reduced length of stay at no additional cost.

Podiatrist care and outcomes for patients with diabetes and foot ulcer.

We examined whether outcomes of care (amputation and hospitalisation) among patients with diabetes and foot ulcer differ between those who received pre-ulcer care from podiatrists and those who did not. Adult patients with diabetes and a diagnosis of a diabetic foot ulcer were found in the MarketScan Databases, 2005-2008. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models estimated the hazard of amputation and hospitalisation. Logistic regression estimated the likelihood of these events. Propensity score weighting and regression adjustment were used to adjust for potentially different characteristics of patients who did and did not receive podiatric care. The sample included 27 545 patients aged greater than 65+ years (Medicare-eligible patients with employer-sponsored supplemental insurance) and 20 208 patients aged lesser than 65 years (non Medicare-eligible commercially insured patients). Care by podiatrists in the year prior to a diabetic foot ulcer was associated with a lower hazard of lower extremity amputation, major amputation and hospitalisations in both non Medicare-eligible commercially insured and Medicare-eligible patient populations. Systematic differences between patients with diabetes and foot ulcer, receiving and not receiving care from podiatrists were also observed; specifically, patients with diabetes receiving care from podiatrists tend to be older and sicker.

Quantifying the risk of prosthetic joint infections after invasive dental procedures and the effect of antibiotic prophylaxis.

BACKGROUND: Dentists face the expectations of orthopedic surgeons and patients with prosthetic joints to provide antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) before invasive dental procedures (IDPs) to reduce the risk of late periprosthetic joint infections (LPJIs), despite the lack of evidence associating IDPs with LPJIs, lack of evidence of AP efficacy, risk of AP-related adverse reactions, and potential for promoting antibiotic resistance. The authors aimed to identify any association between IDPs and LPJIs and whether AP reduces LPJI incidence after IDPs. METHOD: The authors performed a case-crossover analysis comparing IDP incidence in the 3 months immediately before LPJI hospital admission (case period) with the preceding 12-month control period for all LPJI hospital admissions with commercial or Medicare supplemental or Medicaid health care coverage and linked dental and prescription benefits data. RESULTS: Overall, 2,344 LPJI hospital admissions with dental and prescription records (n = 1,160 commercial or Medicare supplemental and n = 1,184 Medicaid) were identified. Patients underwent 4,614 dental procedures in the 15 months before LPJI admission, including 1,821 IDPs (of which 18.3% had AP). Our analysis identified no significant positive association between IDPs and subsequent development of LPJIs and no significant effect of AP in reducing LPJIs. CONCLUSIONS: The authors identified no significant association between IDPs and LPJIs and no effect of AP cover of IDPs in reducing the risk of LPJIs. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: In the absence of benefit, the continued use of AP poses an unnecessary risk to patients from adverse drug reactions and to society from the potential of AP to promote development of antibiotic resistance. Dental AP use to prevent LPJIs should, therefore, cease.

A dynamic analysis of medication adherence.

BACKGROUND: Medication adherence is an important factor in maintaining and improving health, although adherence levels are often suboptimal. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of prior adherence behavior in understanding future adherence behaviors. OBJECTIVE: To improve understanding of adherence behavior and analyze the role of previous adherence in estimating the likelihood of future adherence for maintenance medications. METHODS: The adherence behaviors of 53,709 continuously enrolled individuals in employer-sponsored health plans were analyzed using a state-dependence framework (ie, adherence patterns in the past influence adherence in the future). This allowed for the estimation of the extent of carryover in adherence from one quarter to another while adjusting for observed and unobserved heterogeneity and enrollee characteristics. The role of the initial observation of adherence on the likelihood of future adherence was also analyzed. This study focuses on enrollee cohorts who filled prescriptions in 3 maintenance medication classes: lipid-lowering medications, antihypertensive medications, and oral antidiabetes medications. RESULTS: If an enrollee was adherent in the previous quarter, more than 80% of the time they remained adherent in the current quarter. Similarly, if they were nonadherent in the previous quarter, more than 75% of the time they remained nonadherent. Marginal effect estimates for prior adherence (previous quarter and initial quarter) showed increases in predicted adherence when adherent in the previous quarter (8.7 percentage points [pp] [95% CI = 8.0-9.3 pp] for lipid-lowering medications) and when adherent in the initial quarter (14.4 pp [13.8-15.1 pp] for lipid-lowering medications). Adherence in the initial and previous quarter increased predicted adherence considerably (22.7 pp [22.1-23.3 pp]). Similar patterns held for the antihypertensive medication cohort (antihypertensive medications) and the oral antidiabetes medication cohort (oral antidiabetes medications). The area under the curve (AUC) showed considerable improvement when moving from pooled probit models to dynamic random-effects probit models. AUC for the dynamic models exceeded 0.85 in the 3 medication cohorts, whereas the pooled probit models remained under 0.7. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence in the previous quarter is associated with adherence in the current quarter, after accounting for sources of observable and unobservable heterogeneity across enrollees. In addition, the initial value of adherence matters when explaining the likelihood of adherence.

Antibiotic Prophylaxis Against Infective Endocarditis Before Invasive Dental Procedures.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) before invasive dental procedures (IDPs) is recommended to prevent infective endocarditis (IE) in those at high IE risk, but there are sparse data supporting a link between IDPs and IE or AP efficacy in IE prevention. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate any association between IDPs and IE, and the effectiveness of AP in reducing this. METHODS: We performed a case-crossover analysis and cohort study of the association between IDPs and IE, and AP efficacy, in 7,951,972 U.S. subjects with employer-provided Commercial/Medicare-Supplemental coverage. RESULTS: Time course studies showed that IE was most likely to occur within 4 weeks of an IDP. For those at high IE risk, case-crossover analysis demonstrated a significant temporal association between IE and IDPs in the preceding 4 weeks (OR: 2.00; 95% CI: 1.59-2.52; P = 0.002). This relationship was strongest for dental extractions (OR: 11.08; 95% CI: 7.34-16.74; P < 0.0001) and oral-surgical procedures (OR: 50.77; 95% CI: 20.79-123.98; P < 0.0001). AP was associated with a significant reduction in IE incidence following IDP (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.29-0.85; P = 0.01). The cohort study confirmed the associations between IE and extractions or oral surgical procedures in those at high IE risk and the effect of AP in reducing these associations (extractions: OR: 0.13; 95% CI: 0.03-0.34; P < 0.0001; oral surgical procedures: OR: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.01-0.35; P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated a significant temporal association between IDPs (particularly extractions and oral-surgical procedures) and subsequent IE in high-IE-risk individuals, and a significant association between AP use and reduced IE incidence following these procedures. These data support the American Heart Association, and other, recommendations that those at high IE risk should receive AP before IDP.

The impact of COVID-19 and rapid policy exemptions expanding on access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD): A nationwide Veterans Health Administration cohort study.

BACKGROUND: In March 2020, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) enacted policies to expand treatment for Veterans with opioid use disorder (OUD) during COVID-19. In this study, we evaluate whether COVID-19 and subsequent OUD treatment policies impacted receipt of therapy/counseling and medication for OUD (MOUD). METHODS: Using VHA's nationwide electronic health record data, we compared outcomes between a comparison cohort derived using data from prior to COVID-19 (October 2017-December 2019) and a pandemic-exposed cohort (January 2019-March 2021). Primary outcomes included receipt of therapy/counseling or any MOUD (any/none); secondary outcomes included the number of therapy/counseling sessions attended, and the average percentage of days covered (PDC) by, and months prescribed, each MOUD in a year. RESULTS: Veterans were less likely to receive therapy/counseling over time, especially post-pandemic onset, and despite substantial increases in teletherapy. The likelihood of receiving buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone was reduced post-pandemic onset. PDC on MOUD generally decreased over time, especially methadone PDC post-pandemic onset, whereas buprenorphine PDC was less impacted during COVID-19. The number of months prescribed methadone and buprenorphine represented relative improvements compared to prior years. We observed important disparities across Veteran demographics. CONCLUSION: Receipt of treatment was negatively impacted during the pandemic. However, there was some evidence that coverage on methadone and buprenorphine may have improved among some veterans who received them. These medication effects are consistent with expected COVID-19 treatment disruptions, while improvements regarding access to therapy/counseling via telehealth, as well as coverage on MOUD during the pandemic, are consistent with the aims of MOUD policy exemptions.

Quality of Care Before and After Mergers and Acquisitions of Rural Hospitals.

Importance: Rural hospitals are increasingly merging with other hospitals. The associations of hospital mergers with quality of care need further investigation. Objectives: To examine changes in quality of care for patients at rural hospitals that merged compared with those that remained independent. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this case-control study, mergers at community nonrehabilitation hospitals in Federal Office of Rural Health Policy-eligible zip codes during 2009 to 2016 in 32 states were identified from Irving Levin Associates and the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. Outcomes for inpatient stays for select conditions and elective procedures were derived from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases. Difference-in-differences linear probability models were used to assess premerger to postmerger changes in outcomes for patients discharged from merged vs comparison hospitals that remained independent. Data were analyzed from February to December 2020. Exposures: Hospital mergers. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was in-hospital mortality among patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, stroke, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hip fracture, or pneumonia, as well as complications during stays for elective surgeries. Results: A total of 172 merged hospitals and 266 comparison hospitals were analyzed. After matching, baseline patient characteristics were similar for 303 747 medical stays and 175 970 surgical stays at merged hospitals and 461 092 medical stays and 278 070 surgical stays at comparison hospitals. In-hospital mortality among AMI stays decreased from premerger to postmerger at merged hospitals (9.4% to 5.0%) and comparison hospitals (7.9% to 6.3%). Adjusting for patient, hospital, and community characteristics, the decrease in in-hospital mortality among AMI stays 1 year postmerger was 1.755 (95% CI, -2.825 to -0.685) percentage points greater at merged hospitals than at comparison hospitals (P < .001). This finding held up to 4 years postmerger (DID, -2.039 [95% CI, -3.388 to -0.691] percentage points; P = .003). Greater premerger to postmerger decreases in mortality at merged vs comparison hospitals were also observed at 5 years postmerger among stays for heart failure (DID, -0.756 [95% CI, -1.448 to -0.064] percentage points; P = .03), stroke (DID, -1.667 [95% CI, -3.050 to -0.283] percentage points; P = .02), and pneumonia (DID, -0.862 [95% CI, -1.681 to -0.042] percentage points; P = .04). Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that rural hospital mergers were associated with better mortality outcomes for AMI and several other conditions. This finding is important to enhancing rural health care and reducing urban-rural disparities in quality of care.

Access To Obstetric, Behavioral Health, And Surgical Inpatient Services After Hospital Mergers In Rural Areas.

Despite rural hospitals' central role in their communities, they are increasingly in financial distress and may merge with other hospitals or health systems, potentially reducing service lines that are less profitable or duplicative of services that the acquirer also offers. Using hospital discharge data from thirty-two Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases from the period 2007-18, we examined the influence of rural hospital mergers on changes to inpatient service lines at hospitals and within their catchment areas. We found that merged hospitals were more likely than independent hospitals to eliminate maternal/neonatal and surgical care. Whereas the number of mental/substance use disorder-related stays decreased or remained stable at merged hospitals and within their catchment areas, it increased for unaffiliated hospitals and their catchment areas, indicating a potential unmet need in the communities of rural hospitals postmerger. Although a merger could salvage a hospital's sustainability, it also could reduce service lines and responsiveness to community needs.

Electronic phenotyping of health outcomes of interest using a linked claims-electronic health record database: Findings from a machine learning pilot project.

OBJECTIVE: Claims-based algorithms are used in the Food and Drug Administration Sentinel Active Risk Identification and Analysis System to identify occurrences of health outcomes of interest (HOIs) for medical product safety assessment. This project aimed to apply machine learning classification techniques to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a claims-based algorithm to predict an HOI in structured electronic health record (EHR) data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used the 2015-2019 IBM MarketScan Explorys Claims-EMR Data Set, linking administrative claims and EHR data at the patient level. We focused on a single HOI, rhabdomyolysis, defined by EHR laboratory test results. Using claims-based predictors, we applied machine learning techniques to predict the HOI: logistic regression, LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator), random forests, support vector machines, artificial neural nets, and an ensemble method (Super Learner). RESULTS: The study cohort included 32 956 patients and 39 499 encounters. Model performance (positive predictive value [PPV], sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve) varied considerably across techniques. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve exceeded 0.80 in most model variations. DISCUSSION: For the main Food and Drug Administration use case of assessing risk of rhabdomyolysis after drug use, a model with a high PPV is typically preferred. The Super Learner ensemble model without adjustment for class imbalance achieved a PPV of 75.6%, substantially better than a previously used human expert-developed model (PPV = 44.0%). CONCLUSIONS: It is feasible to use machine learning methods to predict an EHR-derived HOI with claims-based predictors. Modeling strategies can be adapted for intended uses, including surveillance, identification of cases for chart review, and outcomes research.

Trends in patient cost sharing for clinical services used as quality indicators.

BACKGROUND: Patient copayments for all medical services have increased dramatically. There are few data available regarding how copayments have changed for services commonly considered to be quality indicators. OBJECTIVE: Describe the relative change in copayments for services used as quality indicators and interventions subject to programs to control utilization. DESIGN: A large claims database was used to assess copayment changes from 2001 to 2006 for selected drug and non-drug services in patient cohorts with specific chronic diseases. SUBJECTS: Approximately 5 million commercially-insured individuals enrolled in a variety of fee-for-service and capitated health plans. MEASUREMENTS: Copayment trends were calculated as the change in the average amount paid per unit service from 2001 to 2006. RESULTS: Out-of-pocket payments for services targeted by quality improvement initiatives increased substantially [>50%] and in a similar magnitude to interventions subject to programs to control their use. For prescription drugs, the trend was driven more by copayment increases for branded medications [$10 per prescription] than for generic drugs [$2 per prescription]. Copayments for non-drug preventive services rose modestly. CONCLUSIONS: Benefit designers should consider reversing the trend of copayment increases for services considered to be indicators of high quality care.

Emergency department care in the United States: a profile of national data sources.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Emergency departments (EDs) are an integral part of the US health care system, and yet national data sources on the care received in the ED are poorly understood, thereby limiting their usefulness for analyses. We provide a comparison of data sources that can be used to examine utilization and quality of care in the ED nationally. DATA SOURCES AND COMPARISONS: This article compares 7 data sources available in 2005 for conducting analyses of ED encounters: the American Hospital Association Annual Survey Database(), Hospital Market Profiling Solution(c), National Emergency Department Inventory, Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All-Injury Program, and the National Health Interview Survey. In addition to describing the type and scope of data collection, available characteristics, and sponsor of the ED data sources, we compare (where possible) estimates of the total number of EDs, national and regional volume of ED visits, national and regional admission rates (percentage of ED visits resulting in hospital admission), patient characteristics, hospital characteristics, and reasons for visit generated by the various data sources. MAJOR FINDINGS: The different data sources yielded estimates of the number of EDs that ranged from 4,609 to 4,884 and the number of ED encounters from more than 109 million to more than 116 million. Admission rates across data sources varied from 12.0% to 15.3%. Although comparisons of the 7 data sources were somewhat limited by differences in available information and operational definitions, variation in estimates of utilization and patterns of care existed by region, expected payer, and patient and hospital characteristics. The rankings and estimates of the top 5 first-listed conditions seen in the ED are relatively consistent between the 2 data sources with diagnoses, although the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample estimates 1.3 to 5.8 times more ED visits for each chronic and acute all-listed condition examined relative to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. CONCLUSION: Each of the data sources described in this article has unique advantages and disadvantages when used to examine patterns of ED care, making the different data sources appropriate for different applications. Analysts should select a data source according to its construction and should bear in mind its strengths and weaknesses in drawing conclusions based on the estimates it yields.

Cost-sharing effects on adherence and persistence for second-generation antipsychotics in commercially insured patients.

PURPOSE: To assess the relationship between patient cost-sharing (e.g., copayments or coinsurance) and adherence and persistence to second-generation (atypical) antipsychotic (SGA) medications. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY: A retrospective, observational study of adults aged 18-64 years with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (n = 7,910) who initiated SGA medications with employer-sponsored insurance in the 2003-2006 MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database. Adherence was defined as percent of days covered in each calendar quarter. Persistence was defined as days from initiation of SGA to the first 90-day gap in medication on-hand. Generalized Estimating Equations were used to determine the effects of cost-sharing on adherence to SGA medications based on patient-quarter data. A Cox proportional hazards model with patient cost-sharing as a time-varying covariate estimated the effects on persistence with SGA medication. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Higher cost-sharing was associated with a lower likelihood of adherence. When compared to plans with cost-sharing below $10, adherence rates were approximately 27% lower for patients in plans with SGA cost-sharing of $50 and above and about 10% lower for patients in plans with cost-sharing between $30 and $50. In both cases, the reduction in adherence was significant. Higher cost-sharing was also associated with a shorter time to discontinuation (HR: 1.028; 95% CI [1.006-1.051]). CONCLUSION: High SGA cost-sharing appears to be a financial barrier to SGA medication compliance, especially when cost-sharing levels exceeded $30. Our findings have implications for health plans, employers, and policymakers who have, or are, contemplating establishing cost-sharing tiers for SCA medications for commercially insured patients with serious mental illnesses.

Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations and Childbirth Outcomes.

Some states have adopted Accountable Care Organization (ACO) models to transform their Medicaid programs, but little is known about their impact on health care outcomes and costs. Medicaid ACOs are uniquely positioned to improve childbirth outcomes because of the number of births covered by Medicaid. Using Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project hospital data, we examined the relationship between ACO adoption and (a) neonatal and maternal outcomes, and (b) cost per birth. We compared outcomes in states that have adopted ACO models in their Medicaid programs with adjacent states without ACO models. Implementation of Medicaid ACOs was associated with a moderate reduction in hospital costs per birth and decreased cesarean section rates. Results varied by state. We found no association between Medicaid ACOs and several birth outcomes, including infant inpatient mortality, low birthweight, neonatal intensive care unit utilization, and severe maternal morbidity. Improving these outcomes may require more time or targeted interventions.