Making It to Sustainability: Evaluating Billing Strategies for Collaborative Care.

The collaborative care model (CoCM) is an effective strategy to manage common mental disorders in primary care. Despite the growing adoption of newer CoCM billing codes to support these programs, few studies have investigated the use of these codes. This column evaluated the implementation of CoCM billing codes by comparing clinics using different billing strategies and assessed the impact of CoCM code implementation on revenue and on clinical and process-of-care outcomes. Qualitative data were obtained to understand provider perspectives. The results indicate that CoCM billing code implementation is operationally feasible, does not adversely affect the delivery of patient care or revenue, and is acceptable to providers.

Race and the Geography of Opportunity in the Post-Prison Labor Market.

Research on racial disparities in post-prison employment has primarily focused on the differential effects of stigma on blacks and whites, but we otherwise know little about racial differences. This paper examines racial differences in post-prison employment by industry and geography. We find that the formerly incarcerated are most likely to find work in a small number of "felon-friendly" industries with formerly incarcerated whites having higher employment rates than blacks. Whites are more likely to be employed in felon-friendly industries associated with the primary labor market, particularly construction and manufacturing, which have higher wages and more job stability. To explain these racial differences, we investigate the degree to which employment among the formerly incarcerated is related to where felon-friendly employers are located and where individuals who work in felon-friendly industries live. We find that post-prison employment is associated more with proximity to workers in felon-friendly industries than with proximity to employers. Because formerly incarcerated whites are more likely to live near current workers in felon-friendly industries, the geography of opportunity in the post-prison labor market contributes to the racial disparity in post-prison employment.

Establishing Clinically Significant Patient-reported Outcomes for Diverticular Disease.

BACKGROUND: Diverticular disease can undermine health-related quality of life. The diverticulitis quality of life (DV-QOL) instrument was designed and validated to measure patient-reported burden of diverticular disease. However, values reflecting meaningful improvement (i.e., minimal clinically important difference [MCID]) and the patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) have yet to be established. We sought to establish the MCID and PASS of the DV-QOL and describe the characteristics of those with DV-QOL above the PASS threshold. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study of adults with diverticular disease from seven centers in Washington and California (2016-2018). Patients were surveyed at baseline, then quarterly up to 30 mo. To determine the MCID and PASS for DV-QOL, we applied various previously established distribution- and anchor-based approaches and compared the resulting values. RESULTS: The study included 177 patients (mean age 57 y, 43% women). A PASS threshold of 3.2/10 distinguished between those with and without health-related quality of life-impacting diverticulitis with acceptable accuracy (area under the curve 0.76). A change of 2.2 points in the DV-QOL was the most appropriate MCID: above the distribution-based MCIDs and corresponding to patient perception of importance of change (AUC 0.70). Patients with DV-QOL ≥ PASS were more often men, younger, had Medicaid, had more serious episodes of diverticulitis, and had an occupational degree or high-school education or less. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to define MCID and PASS for DV-QOL. These thresholds are critical for measuring the impact of diverticular disease and the evaluation of treatment effectiveness.

Design of a study to implement population-based risk assessment for hereditary cancer genetic testing in primary care.

Identifying patients with high genetic risk for cancer has important clinical ramifications, but hereditary cancer risk is often not identified because of testing barriers at both the provider and patient level. It is unknown how to best implement appropriate genetic testing and follow-up care into an operating primary care clinic. Implementation studies to date have been conducted in high resourced facilities under optimal conditions, often not at the clinic level. This study aims to compare and evaluate two population-wide engagement strategies for identifying members of a primary care clinic's population with a family or personal history of cancer and offering high-risk individuals genetic testing for cancer susceptibility mutations. The two engagement strategies are: 1) point of care screening (POC), conducted when a patient is scheduled for an appointment and 2) direct patient engagement (DPE), where outreach provides the patient an opportunity to complete screening online on their own time. The study will identify changes, problems, and inefficiencies in clinical flow during and after the implementation of risk assessment and genomic testing for cancer risk across primary care clinics. It will also evaluate the effects of the two engagement strategies on patient, provider, and clinic leader outcomes, including perceptions of benefits, harms, and satisfaction with the engagement strategy and process of cancer risk assessment and genetic testing, across gender, racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and genetic literacy divides. Finally, the study will evaluate the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of each engagement strategy.