Differences in Outcomes by Place of Origin among Hispanic Patients with Kidney Failure.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Hispanic patients are known to have a higher risk of kidney failure and lower rates of home dialysis use and kidney transplantation than non-Hispanic White patients. However, it is unknown whether these outcomes differ within the Hispanic community, which is heterogeneous in its members' places of origins. Using United States Renal Data System data, the authors found similar adjusted rates of home dialysis use for patients originating from places outside the United States and US-born Hispanic patients, whereas the adjusted risk of mortality and likelihood of transplantation differed depending on place (country or territory) of origin. Understanding the heterogeneity in kidney disease outcomes and treatment within the Hispanic community is crucial in designing interventions and implementation strategies to ensure that Hispanic individuals with kidney failure have equitable access to care. BACKGROUND: Compared with non-Hispanic White groups, Hispanic individuals have a higher risk of kidney failure yet lower rates of living donor transplantation and home dialysis. However, how home dialysis, mortality, and transplantation vary within the Hispanic community depending on patients' place of origin is unclear. METHODS: We identified adult Hispanic patients from the United States Renal Data System who initiated dialysis in 2009-2017. Primary exposure was country or territory of origin (the United States, Mexico, US-Puerto Rico, and other countries). We used logistic regression to estimate differences in odds of initiating home dialysis and competing risk models to estimate subdistribution hazard ratios (SHR) of mortality and kidney transplantation. RESULTS: Of 137,039 patients, 44.4% were US-born, 30.9% were from Mexico, 12.9% were from US-Puerto Rico, and 11.8% were from other countries. Home dialysis rates were higher among US-born patients, but not significantly different after adjusting for demographic, medical, socioeconomic, and facility-level factors. Adjusted mortality risk was higher for individuals from US-Puerto Rico (SHR, 1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01 to 1.08) and lower for Mexico (SHR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.81) and other countries (SHR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.81 to 0.86) compared with US-born patients. The adjusted rate of transplantation for Mexican or US-Puerto Rican patients was similar to that of US-born patients but higher for those from other countries (SHR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.15 to 1.30). CONCLUSIONS: Hispanic people from different places of origin have similar adjusted rates of home dialysis but different adjusted rates of mortality and kidney transplantation. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying these observed differences in outcomes.

High-cost high-need patients in Medicaid: segmenting the population eligible for a national complex case management program.

BACKGROUND: High-cost high-need patients are typically defined by risk or cost thresholds which aggregate clinically diverse subgroups into a single 'high-need high-cost' designation. Programs have had limited success in reducing utilization or improving quality of care for high-cost high-need Medicaid patients, which may be due to the underlying clinical heterogeneity of patients meeting high-cost high-need designations. METHODS: Our objective was to segment a population of high-cost high-need Medicaid patients (N = 676,161) eligible for a national complex case management program between January 2012 and May 2015 to disaggregate clinically diverse subgroups. Patients were eligible if they were in the top 5 % of annual spending among UnitedHealthcare Medicaid beneficiaries. We used k-means cluster analysis, identified clusters using an information-theoretic approach, and named clusters using the patients' pattern of acute and chronic conditions. We assessed one-year overall and preventable hospitalizations, overall and preventable emergency department (ED) visits, and cluster stability. RESULTS: Six clusters were identified which varied by utilization and stability. The characteristic condition patterns were: 1) pregnancy complications, 2) behavioral health, 3) relatively few conditions, 4) cardio-metabolic disease, and complex illness with relatively 5) low or 6) high resource use. The patients varied by cluster by average ED visits (2.3-11.3), hospitalizations (0.3-2.0), and cluster stability (32-91%). CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that disaggregating subgroups of high-cost high-need patients in a large multi-state Medicaid sample identified clinically distinct clusters of patients who may have unique clinical needs. Segmenting previously identified high-cost high-need populations thus may be a necessary strategy to improve the effectiveness of complex case management programs in Medicaid.

Evaluation of a National Care Coordination Program to Reduce Utilization Among High-cost, High-need Medicaid Beneficiaries With Diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Medical, behavioral, and social determinants of health are each associated with high levels of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate a care coordination program designed to provide combined "whole-person care," integrating medical, behavioral, and social support for high-cost, high-need Medicaid beneficiaries by targeting access barriers and social determinants. RESEARCH DESIGN: Individual-level interrupted time series with a comparator group, using person-month as the unit of analysis. SUBJECTS: A total of 42,214 UnitedHealthcare Medicaid beneficiaries (194,834 person-months) age 21 years or above with diabetes, with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Medicaid expansion, Supplemental Security Income without Medicare, or dual Medicaid/Medicare. MEASURES: Our outcome measures were any hospitalizations and any ED visits in a given month. Covariates of interest included an indicator for intervention versus comparator group and indicator and spline variables measuring changes in an outcome's time trend after program enrollment. RESULTS: Overall, 6 of the 8 examined comparisons were not statistically significant. Among Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries, we observed a larger projected decrease in ED visit risk among the intervention sample versus the comparator sample at 12 months postenrollment (difference-in-difference: -6.6%; 95% confidence interval: -11.2%, -2.1%). Among expansion beneficiaries, we observed a greater decrease in hospitalization risk among the intervention sample versus the comparator sample at 12 months postenrollment (difference-in-difference: -5.8%; 95% confidence interval: -11.4%, -0.2%). CONCLUSION: A care coordination program designed to reduce utilization among high-cost, high-need Medicaid beneficiaries was associated with fewer ED visits and hospitalizations for patients with diabetes in selected Medicaid programs but not others.

Development and validation of new multimorbidity-weighted index for ICD-10-coded electronic health record and claims data: an observational study.

OBJECTIVE: Map multimorbidity-weighted index (MWI) conditions to International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10), expand the conditions and codes to develop a new ICD-10-coded MWI (MWI-ICD10) and updated MWI-ICD9, and assess their consistency. DESIGN: Population-based retrospective cohort. SETTING: Large medical centre between 2013 and 2017. PARTICIPANTS: Adults ≥18 years old with encounters in each of 4 years (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: MWI conditions mapped to ICD-10 codes, and additional conditions and codes added to produce a new MWI-ICD10 and updated MWI-ICD9. We compared the prevalence of ICD-coded MWI conditions within the ICD-9 era (2013-2014), within the ICD-10 era (2016-2017) and across the ICD-9-ICD-10 transition in 2015 (washout period) among adults present in both sets of comparison years. We computed the prevalence and change in prevalence of conditions when using MWI-ICD10 versus MWI-ICD9. RESULTS: 88 175 adults met inclusion criteria. Participants were 60.8% female, 50.5% white, with mean age 54.7±17.3 years and baseline MWI-ICD9 4.47±6.02 (range 0-64.33). Of 94 conditions, 65 had <1% difference across the ICD-9-ICD-10 transition and similar minimal changes within ICD coding eras. CONCLUSIONS: MWI-ICD10 captured the prevalence of chronic conditions nearly identically to that of the validated MWI-ICD9, along with notable but explicable changes across the ICD-10 transition. This new comprehensive person-centred index enables quantification of cumulative disease burden and physical functioning in adults as a clinically meaningful measure of multimorbidity in electronic health record and claims data.

Differential Impact of a Plan-Led Standardized Complex Care Management Intervention on Subgroups of High-Cost High-Need Medicaid Patients.

Interventions to better coordinate care for high-need high-cost (HNHC) Medicaid patients frequently fail to demonstrate changes in hospitalizations or emergency department (ED) use. Many of these interventions are modeled after practice-level complex care management (CCM) programs. The authors hypothesized that a national CCM program may be effective for some subgroups of HNHC patients, and the overall null effect may obfuscate subgroup-level impact. They used a previously published typology defining 6 subgroups of high-cost Medicaid patients and evaluated program impact by subgroup. The analysis used an individual-level interrupted time series with a comparison group. Intervention subjects were high-cost adult Medicaid patients who enrolled in 1 of 2 national CCM programs implemented by UnitedHealthcare (UHC) (n = 39,687). The comparators were patients who met CCM program criteria but were ineligible due to current enrollment in another UHC/Optum led program (N = 26,359). The intervention was a CCM program developed by UHC/Optum to provide "whole person care" delivering standardized interventions to address medical, behavioral, and social needs for HNHC Medicaid patients, and the outcome was probability of hospitalization or ED use in a given month, estimated at 12 months postenrollment. A reduction in risk of ED utilization for 4 of 6 subgroups was found. A reduction in risk of hospitalization for 1 of 6 subgroups was also found. The authors conclude that standardized health plan led CCM programs demonstrate effectiveness for certain subgroups of HNHC patients in Medicaid. This effectiveness is principally in reducing ED risk and may extend to the risk of hospitalization for a small number of patients.