Racial and ethnic disparities in care for health system-affiliated physician organizations and non-affiliated physician organizations.

OBJECTIVE: To assess racial and ethnic disparities in care for Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries and whether disparities differ between health system-affiliated physician organizations (POs) and nonaffiliated POs. DATA SOURCES: We used Medicare Data on Provider Practice and Specialty (MD-PPAS), Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS), IRS Form 990, 100% Medicare FFS claims, and race/ethnicity estimated using the Medicare Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding 2.0 algorithm. STUDY DESIGN: Using a sample of 16 007 POs providing primary care in 2015, we assessed racial/ethnic disparities on 12 measures derived from claims (2 cancer screenings; diabetic eye examinations; continuity of care; two medication adherence measures; three measures of follow-up visits after acute care; all-cause emergency department (ED) visits, all-cause readmissions, and ambulatory care-sensitive admissions). We decomposed these "total" disparities into within-PO and between-PO components using models with PO random effects. We then pair-matched 1853 of these POs that were affiliated with health systems to similar nonaffiliated POs. We examined differences in within-PO disparities by affiliation status by interacting each nonwhite race/ethnicity with an affiliation indicator. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Medicare Data on Provider Practice and Specialty identified POs billing Medicare; PECOS and IRS Form 990 identified health system affiliations. Beneficiaries age 18 and older were attributed to POs using a plurality visit rule. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We observed total disparities in 12 of 36 comparisons between white and nonwhite beneficiaries; nonwhites received worse care in 10. Within-PO disparities exceeded between-PO disparities and were substantively important (>=5 percentage points or>=0.2 standardized differences) in nine of the 12 comparisons. Among these 12, nonaffiliated POs had smaller disparities than affiliated POs in two comparisons (P < .05): 1.6 percentage points smaller black-white disparities in follow-up after ED visits and 0.6 percentage points smaller Hispanic-white disparities in breast cancer screening. CONCLUSIONS: We find no evidence that system-affiliated POs have smaller racial and ethnic disparities than nonaffiliated POs. Where differences existed, disparities were slightly larger in affiliated POs.

Health system affiliation of physician organizations and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries who have high needs.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that health systems provide better care to patients with high needs by comparing differences in quality between system-affiliated and nonaffiliated physician organizations (POs) and to examine variability in quality across health systems. DATA SOURCES: 2015 Medicare Data on Provider Practice and Specialty linked physicians to POs. Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) and IRS Form 990 data identified health system affiliations. Fee-for-service Medicare enrollment and claims data were used to examine quality. STUDY DESIGN: This cross-sectional analysis of beneficiaries with high needs, defined as having more than twice the expected spending of an average beneficiary, examined six quality measures: continuity of care, follow-up visits after hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits, ED visits, all-cause readmissions, and ambulatory care-sensitive hospitalizations. Using a matched-pair design, we estimated beneficiary-level regression models with PO random effects to compare quality of care in system-affiliated and nonaffiliated POs. We then limited the sample to system-affiliated POs and estimated models with system random effects to examine variability in quality across systems. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Among 2 323 301 beneficiaries with high needs, 52.3% received care from system-affiliated POs. Rates of ED visits were statistically significantly different in system-affiliated POs (117.5 per 100) and nonaffiliated POs (106.8 per 100, P < .0001). Small differences in the other five quality measures were observed across a range of sensitivity analyses. Among systems, substantial variation was observed for rates of continuity of care (90% of systems had rates between 70.8% and 89.4%) and follow-up after ED visits (90% of systems had rates between 56.9% and 73.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Small differences in quality of care were observed among beneficiaries with high needs receiving care from system POs and nonsystem POs. Health systems may not confer hypothesized quality advantages to patients with high needs.

Residency Program Characteristics and Individual Physician Practice Characteristics Associated With Family Physician Scope of Practice.

PURPOSE: A family physician's ability to provide continuous, comprehensive care begins in residency. Previous studies show that patterns developed during residency may be imprinted upon physicians, guiding future practice. The objective was to determine family medicine residency characteristics associated with graduates' scope of practice (SCoP). METHOD: The authors used (1) residency program data from the 2012 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medicine Education Accreditation Data System and (2) self-reported data supplied by family physicians when they registered for the first recertification examination with the American Board of Family Medicine (2013-2016)-7 to 10 years after completing residency. The authors used linear regression analyses to examine the relationship between individual physician SCoP (measured by the SCoP for primary care [SP4PC] score [scale of 0-30; low = small scope]) and individual, practice, and residency program characteristics. RESULTS: The authors sampled 8,261 physicians from 423 residencies. The average SP4PC score was 15.4 (standard deviation, 3.2). Models showed that SCoP broadened with increasing rurality. Physicians from unopposed (single) programs had higher SCoP (0.26 increase in SP4PC); those from major teaching hospitals had lower SCoP (0.18 decrease in SP4PC). CONCLUSIONS: Residency program characteristics may influence family physicians' SCoP, although less than individual characteristics do. Broad SCoP may imply more comprehensive care, which is the foundation of a strong primary care system to increase quality, decrease cost, and reduce physician burnout. Some residency program characteristics can be altered so that programs graduate physicians with broader SCoP, thereby meeting patient needs and improving the health system.

Case studies in clinical transformation.

Keys to success in undertaking clinical transformation initiatives include: Payer alignment. Robust technology (e.g., tools that can migrate patient data into disease registries). Commitment to making the investments and process changes needed to support population health management. Partnerships with local employers. Small steps toward greater value.

Qualitative evaluation of a local coronary heart disease treatment pathway: practical implications and theoretical framework.

BACKGROUND: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a common medical problem in general practice. Due to its chronic character, shared care of the patient between general practitioner (GP) and cardiologist (C) is required. In order to improve the cooperation between both medical specialists for patients with CHD, a local treatment pathway was developed. The objective of this study was first to evaluate GPs' opinions regarding the pathway and its practical implications, and secondly to suggest a theoretical framework of the findings by feeding the identified key factors influencing the pathway implementation into a multi-dimensional model. METHODS: The evaluation of the pathway was conducted in a qualitative design on a sample of 12 pathway developers (8 GPs and 4 cardiologists) and 4 pathway users (GPs). Face-to face interviews, which were aligned with previously conducted studies of the department and assumptions of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), were performed following a semi-structured interview guideline. These were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed according to the standards of qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: We identified 10 frequently mentioned key factors having an impact on the implementation success of the CHD treatment pathway. We thereby differentiated between pathway related (pathway content, effort, individual flexibility, ownership), behaviour related (previous behaviour, support), interaction related (patient, shared care/colleagues), and system related factors (context, health care system). The overall evaluation of the CHD pathway was positive, but did not automatically lead to a change of clinical behaviour as some GPs felt to have already acted as the pathway recommends. CONCLUSIONS: By providing an account of our experience creating and implementing an intersectoral care pathway for CHD, this study contributes to our knowledge of factors that may influence physicians' decisions regarding the use of a local treatment pathway. An improved adaptation of the pathway in daily practice might be best achieved by a combined implementation strategy addressing internal and external factors. A simple, direct adaptation regards the design of the pathway material (e.g. layout, PC version), or the embedding of the pathway in another programme, like a Disease Management Programme (DMP). In addition to these practical implications, we propose a theoretical framework to understand the key factors' influence on the pathway implementation, with the identified factors along the microlevel (pathway related factors), the mesolevel (interaction related factors), and system- related factors along the macrolevel.

Attitudes toward pay-for-performance initiatives among primary care osteopathic physicians in small group practices.

CONTEXT: Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs reward physicians who meet-and electronically document-specific healthcare standards during patient encounters, incentivizing certain aspects of medical care. Although such documentation can be time consuming and technology intensive, noncompliance can result in decreased physician reimbursement. OBJECTIVE: To assess the attitudes of primary care osteopathic physicians toward P4P initiatives. METHODS: In 2006, a 20-item questionnaire was mailed to 1000 osteopathic physicians randomly pulled from the American Osteopathic Association database for this cross-sectional, survey-based study. Distinctions were not made between physician practice type or group size when the mailing list was compiled. RESULTS: Two hundred thirty responses were received for a response rate of 23%. Of these respondents, 123 physicians (54%) were in primary care practices comprising fewer than five physicians. Of these practitioners, 94% felt unprepared for P4P initiatives, 81% did not have the resources for appropriate technological investments, and 75% required additional P4P education and training to respond to P4P initiatives. In addition, the 28% of respondents who used electronic medical records were almost five times more likely (odds ratio, 4.80; 95% confidence interval, 1.91-12.06) to report that they could meet P4P reporting requirements. The majority of survey respondents were skeptical that P4P would appropriately capture the quality of their work and did not believe that health outcomes should influence their reimbursement. CONCLUSIONS: Although the current study's sample size may limit generalizability, small group primary care osteopathic physicians will need assistance-both technological and educational-to meet P4P measures.

Learning to leverage existing information systems: Part 1. Principles.

BACKGROUND: The success of performance improvement efforts depends on effective measurement and feedback regarding clinical processes and outcomes. Yet most health care organizations have fragmented rather than integrated data systems. Methods and practical guidance are provided for leveraging available information sources to obtain and create valid performance improvement-related information for use by clinicians and administrators. CASE VIGNETTE: At Virginia Mason Health System (VMHS; Seattle), a vertically integrated hospital and multispecialty group practice, patient records are paper based and are supplemented with electronic reporting for laboratory and radiology services. Despite growth in the resources and interest devoted to organization-wide performance measurement, quality improvement, and evidence-based tools, VMHS's information systems consist of largely stand-alone, legacy systems organized around the ability to retrieve information on patients, one at a time. By 2002, without any investment in technology, VMHS had developed standardized, clinic-wide key indicators of performance updated and reported regularly at the patient, provider, site, and organizational levels. LEVERAGING EXISTING SYSTEMS: On the basis of VHMS's experience, principles can be suggested to guide other organizations to explore solutions using their own information systems: for example, start simply, but start; identify information needs; tap multiple data streams; and improve incrementally.

Assessing the extent of integration achieved through physician-hospital arrangements.

In this article we examine management service organizations (MSOs), physician-hospital organizations (PHOs), hospital-affiliated independent practice associations (IPAs), and hospital-sponsored "group practices without walls" (GPWWs) that allow physicians to retain their practices and link hospitals and health systems to physicians through contractual arrangements. Also examined were medical foundations (MFs), integrated salary models (ISMs), and integrated health organizations (IHOs) that own the physical assets of physician practices and contract with payors for physician and hospital services. The research provides several new insights for understanding the structure and process of physician-hospital integration. It was found that the extent of processual integration in physician-hospital organizational arrangements can be measured along six dimensions: administrative and practice management services; physician financial risk-sharing; joint ventures to create new services; computer linkages; physician involvement in strategic planning; and salaried physician arrangements. These dimensions are consistent with the conceptual and empirical dimensions developed by others. These findings refute the notion raised by some industry observers that the new physician-hospital organizational models simply formalize integrative activities already in place. Earlier studies from the 1980s reported that hospitals integrated physicians through involvement in governance, capital planning, and the provision of practice management services. In contrast, we found that current integration.

Physician outcome measurement: review and proposed model.

As health care moves from a free-for-service environment to a capitated arena, outcome measurements must change. ABC Children's Medical Center is challenged with developing comprehensive outcome measures for an employed physician group. An extensive literature review validates that physician outcomes must move beyond revenue production and measure all aspects of care delivery. The proposed measurement model for this physician group is a trilogy model. It includes measures of cost, quality, and service. While these measures can be examined separately, it is imperative to understand their integration in determining an organization's competitive advantage. The recommended measurements for the physician group must be consistent with the overall organizational goals. The long-term impact will be better utilization of resources. This will result in the most cost effective, quality care for the health care consumer.

The state of integration, 1997/1998.

Integration has been around long enough to assess its successes and failures. Of the three main types of integration--between physician groups, between hospitals and medical groups and through physician practice management companies--hospital-physician group mergers have been the least impressive. Hospitals tend to throw money at situations, rather than try to understand group practice. Physician practice management companies, on the other hand, have made great strides by respecting the particularities of group practice and adding value to the practices they buy.

Primary-care doctors lured, and integrated delivery systems surge.

Respondents of this survey revealed that hospitals as critical pieces of IDSs have declined, while primary-care centers have skyrocketed. According to a spokesperson from the company that conducted the survey, "Healthcare organizations may be well on their way toward forming IDSs and turning family physicians into gatekeepers, but, in many ways, they're still novices when it comes to using capitation and compensation as tools to control costs."