Impact of overdose on health plan disenrollment among patients prescribed long-term opioids: Retrospective cohort study.

CONTEXT: Health plan disenrollment may disrupt chronic or preventive care for patients prescribed long-term opioid therapy (LTOT). PURPOSE: To assess whether overdose events in patients prescribed LTOT are associated with subsequent health plan disenrollment. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING AND DATASET: Data from the Optum Labs Data Warehouse which includes de-identified medical and pharmacy claims and enrollment records for commercial and Medicare Advantage enrollees. The database contains longitudinal health information on patients, representing a mixture of ages and geographical regions across the United States. PATIENTS: Adults prescribed stable opioid therapy (≥10 morphine milligram equivalents/day) for a 6-month baseline period prior to an index opioid prescription from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. MAIN MEASURES: Health plan disenrollment during follow-up. RESULTS: The cohort comprised 404,151 patients who were followed up after 800,250 baseline periods of stable opioid dosing. During a mean follow-up of 9.1 months, unadjusted disenrollment rates among primary commercial beneficiaries and Medicare Advantage enrollees were 37.2 and 13.9 per 100 person-years, respectively. Incident overdoses were associated with subsequent health plan disenrollment with a statistically significantly stronger association among primary commercial insurance beneficiaries [adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR) 1.48 (95% CI: 1.33-1.64)] as compared to Medicare Advantage enrollees [aIRR 1.15 (95% CI: 1.07-1.23)]. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients prescribed long-term opioids, overdose events were strongly associated with subsequent health plan disenrollment, especially among primary commercial insurance beneficiaries. These findings raise concerns about the social consequences of overdose, including potential health insurance loss, which may limit patient access to care at a time of heightened vulnerability.

Association Between Opioid Tapering and Subsequent Health Care Use, Medication Adherence, and Chronic Condition Control.

Importance: Opioid tapering has been associated with negative consequences, such as increased overdoses and mental health needs. Tapering could also alter use of health care services and worsen care of comorbid conditions through disruption in primary care. Objective: To evaluate tapering of stable long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) and subsequent health care service use and chronic condition care. Design, Setting, and Participants: A retrospective cohort study was conducted from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2019. Data analysis was performed from July 9, 2020, to December 9, 2022. Data from the Optum Labs Data Warehouse, which contains deidentified retrospective administrative claims data and linked electronic health record data for commercial and Medicare Advantage enrollees, were used. Adults aged 18 years or older prescribed stable doses of LTOT at 50 morphine milligram equivalents or more per day during a 12-month baseline period were included, including subcohorts with hypertension or diabetes. Exposures: Opioid tapering, with 15% or more relative reduction in mean daily dose in 6 overlapping periods during 6 months. Main Outcomes and Measures: Emergency department visits, hospitalizations, primary care and specialist visits, antihypertensive or antiglycemic medication adherence, and blood pressure and hemoglobin A1c levels during up to 12 months' follow-up. Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics, comorbidities, health care use, and chronic condition control. Results: Among 113 604 patients (60 764 [53.5%] women; mean [SD] age, 58.1 [11.8] years) prescribed LTOT, 41 207 had hypertension and 23 335 had diabetes; in all cohorts, approximately half were women, and half were aged 50 to 65 years. In the overall cohort, tapering was associated with more emergency department visits (adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR], 1.19; 95% CI, 1.16-1.21) and hospitalizations (aIRR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.12-1.20), with similar magnitude associations in the hypertension and diabetes subcohorts. Tapering was associated with fewer primary care visits in the overall cohort (aIRR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.94-0.96) and hypertension subcohort (aIRR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97-0.99). For the hypertension or diabetes subcohorts, tapering was associated with reduced medication adherence (hypertension: aIRR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.59-0.62; diabetes: aIRR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.67-0.71) and small increases in diastolic blood pressure and hemoglobin A1c level. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study of patients prescribed LTOT, opioid tapering was associated with more emergency department visits and hospitalizations, fewer primary care visits, and reduced antihypertensive and antidiabetic medication adherence. These outcomes may represent unintended negative consequences of opioid tapering for policy makers and clinicians to consider.

Longitudinal Dose Trajectory Among Patients Tapering Long-Term Opioids.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the dose trajectory of new opioid tapers and estimate the percentage of patients with sustained tapers at long-term follow-up. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Data from the OptumLabs Data Warehouse® which includes de-identified medical and pharmacy claims and enrollment records for commercial and Medicare Advantage enrollees, representing a diverse mixture of ages, ethnicities, and geographical regions across the United States. SUBJECTS: Patients prescribed stable, higher-dose opioids for ≥12 months from 2008 to 2018. METHODS: Tapering was defined as ≥15% relative reduction in average MME/day during any of six overlapping 60-day periods in the initial 7 months of follow-up after the period of stable baseline dosing. Average monthly dose was ascertained during consecutive 60-day periods up to 16 months of follow-up. Linear regression estimated the geometric mean relative dose by tapering status and follow-up duration. Poisson regression estimated the percentage of tapered patients with sustained dose reductions at follow-up and patient-level predictors of failing to sustain tapers. RESULTS: The sample included 113,618 patients with 203,920 periods of stable baseline dosing (mean follow-up = 13.7 months). Tapering was initiated during 37,170 follow-up periods (18.2%). After taper initiation, patients had a substantial initial mean dose reduction (geometric mean relative dose .73 [95% CI: .72-.74]) that was sustained through 16 months of follow-up; at which point, 69.8% (95% CI: 69.1%-70.4%) of patients who initiated tapers had a relative dose reduction ≥15%, and 14.2% (95% CI: 13.7%-14.7%) had discontinued opioids. Failure to sustain tapers was significantly less likely among patients with overdose events during follow-up (adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR]: .56 [95% CI: .48-.67]) and during more recent years (aIRR: .93 per year after 2008 [95% CI: .92-.94]). CONCLUSIONS: In an insured and Medicare Advantage population, over two-thirds of patients who initiated opioid dose tapering sustained long-term dose reductions, and the likelihood of sustaining tapers increased substantially from 2008 to 2018.

Making the most of video recorded clinical encounters: Optimizing impact and productivity through interdisciplinary teamwork.

Patient-clinician interactions are central to technical and interpersonal processes of medical care. Video recordings of these interactions provide a rich source of data and a stable record that allows for repeated viewing and analysis. Collecting video recordings requires navigating ethical and feasibility constraints; further, realizing the potential of video requires specialized research skills. Interdisciplinary collaborations involving practitioners, medical educators, and social scientists are needed to provide the clinical perspectives, methodological expertise, and capacity needed to make collecting video worthwhile. Such collaboration ensures that research questions will be based on scholarship from the social sciences, resonate with practice, and produce results that fit educational needs. However, the literature lacks suggested practices for building and sustaining interdisciplinary research collaborations involving video data. In this paper, we provide concrete advice based on our experience collecting and analyzing a single set of video-recorded clinical encounters and non-video data, which have so far yielded nine distinct studies. We present the research process, timeline, and advice based on our experience with interdisciplinary collaboration. We found that integrating disciplines and traditions required patience, compromise, and mutual respect; learning from each other enhanced our enjoyment of the process, our productivity, and the clinical relevance of our research.

When Physicians Say No: Predictors of Request Denial and Subsequent Patient Satisfaction.

BACKGROUND: Physician denial of patient requests is associated with lower patient satisfaction. Our objective was to explore factors that influence physician request denial and patient satisfaction after request denial. METHODS: Cross-sectional observational study of 1141 adult patients seen during 1319 outpatient visits with 56 primary care physicians. We measured patients' postvisit self-report of requests and request fulfillment, visit satisfaction, sociodemographics, health status, symptom burden, life satisfaction, medical skepticism, and whether patients saw their usual physician and a faculty or resident physician. We used mixed-effects regression analyses to identify predictors of request denial and visit satisfaction among patients who had a request denied. RESULTS: Patients made at least 1 request at 867 visits (65.7%) with at least 1 denied request reported at 182 visits (21.0%). Patients who saw their usual physician were less likely to report a request denial (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR], 0.61; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.88), and patients with the highest symptom burden (aOR, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.38 to 3.55) or greater medical skepticism (aOR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.78) were more likely to report request denials. After request denials, patients seeing their usual physicians reported significantly greater visit satisfaction compared with not seeing their usual physician (adjusted percentile rank in visit satisfaction: 12.4%; 95% CI, 3.5% to 21.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately one fifth of visits in primary care have a denied request. Having an office visit with one's usual physician is associated with reduced likelihood of request denial and may mitigate the adverse impacts of request denial on patient visit satisfaction.

Patient Satisfaction with Clinicians and Short-Term Mortality in a US National Sample: the Roles of Morbidity and Gender.

BACKGROUND: In a prior study, we found patient satisfaction was associated with mortality. However, that study included few deaths, yielding wide confidence intervals, was criticized for possible morbidity under-adjustment, and lacked power to explore sociodemographic moderation. OBJECTIVE: To revisit the satisfaction-mortality association in a larger national sample, allowing more precise risk estimates, sequential morbidity adjustment, and exploration of sociodemographic moderation. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: 2000-2015 Adult Medical Expenditures Panel Surveys (MEPS) respondents (N = 92,952), each enrolled for 2 consecutive years. MAIN MEASURES: We used five Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS) items to assess patients' year 1 satisfaction with their clinicians. Death during the 2 years of MEPS participation was determined by proxy report. We modeled the satisfaction-mortality association in sequential regressions: model 1 included sociodemographics, model 2 added health status (approximating recommended CAHPS adjustment), and model 3 added smoking status, disease burden, and healthcare utilization. KEY RESULTS: Satisfaction was not associated with mortality in model 1. In model 2, higher satisfaction was associated with higher mortality (hazard ratios [95% CIs] for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (top) quartiles vs. 1st quartile: 1.28 (1.01, 1.62), P = 0.04; 1.43 (1.12, 1.82), P = 0.004; and 1.57 (1.25, 1.98), P < 0.001, respectively). The associations were not attenuated in model 3. There was a significant interaction between gender and satisfaction (F[3, 443] = 3.62, P = 0.01). The association between satisfaction and mortality was significant in women only, such that their mortality advantage over men was eliminated in the highest satisfaction quartile. CONCLUSIONS: The association of higher patient satisfaction with clinicians with higher short-term mortality was evident only after CAHPS-recommended adjustment, was not attenuated by further morbidity adjustment, and was evident in women but not men. The findings suggest that characteristics among women who are more satisfied with their clinicians may be associated with increased mortality risk.

Patient Characteristics Associated with Making Requests during Primary Care Visits.

BACKGROUND: Patient requests for tests, treatments, or referrals occur frequently during primary care visits and pose challenges for clinicians to address, but little is known about patient characteristics that may predict requests. OBJECTIVE: To identify patient characteristics associated with a higher rate of patient requests during primary care visits. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SAMPLE: Cross-sectional analyses of data from 1141 adult patients attending 1319 visits with 56 primary care physicians (including 45 resident and 11 faculty physicians) in an academic family medicine practice. MEASUREMENTS: Postvisit patient surveys including measures of patient requests for tests, prescriptions, and referrals; sociodemographics; mental and physical health status; symptom bother or worry (3-item scale; range, 3 to 15; Cronbach's α = 0.83); global life satisfaction; medical skepticism; and Five Factor Model personality traits. RESULTS: Patients made 1 or more requests in 867 visits (65.7%). In multivariate analyses of the within-visit request count, the following patient variables were statistically significantly associated with a higher rate of requests: age in years (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.01 [95% CI, 1.00 to 1.01]), increased symptom bother or worry (IRR, 1.06 [95% CI, 1.03 to 1.08]), a more extroverted personality (IRR, 1.12 [95% CI, 1.03 to 1.08]), greater life satisfaction (IRR, 1.01 [95% CI, 1.00 to 1.02]), and any prior encounter with the visit physician (IRR, 1.17 [95% CI, 1.04 to 1.32]). CONCLUSIONS: Primary care physicians should expect a greater frequency of requests from older patients, patients with greater symptoms bother or worry, more extroverted patients, patients with greater global life satisfaction, and patients with whom they have had prior visits.

Blood Pressure Control and Other Quality of Care Metrics for Patients with Obesity and Diabetes: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

INTRODUCTION: There are no population-level estimates in the United States for achievement of blood pressure goals in patients with diabetes and hypertension by obesity weight class. AIM: We sought to examine the relationship between the extent of obesity and the achievement of guideline-recommended blood pressure goals and other quality of care metrics among patients with diabetes. METHODS: We conducted an observational population-based cohort study of electronic health data of three large health systems from 2010-2012 in rural, urban and suburban settings of 51,229 adults with diabetes. Outcomes were achievement of diabetes quality of care metrics: blood pressure, A1c, and LDL control, and A1c and LDL testing. Two blood pressure goals were examined given the recommendation for adults with diabetes of 130/80 mmHg from JNC7 and the recommendation of 140/90 mmHg from JNC8 in 2014. RESULTS: Patients in obesity classes I, II, and III with diagnosed hypertension were less likely to achieve blood pressure control at both the 140/90 mmHg and 130/80 mmHg control levels. The patients from obesity class III had the lowest likelihood of achieving control at the 130/80 mmHg goal, and control was markedly worse for the 130/80 mmHg threshold in all weight classes. There were minimal to no differences by weight class in LDL and A1c control and LDL and A1c testing. CONCLUSIONS: Although the cardiovascular risk for patients with obesity and diabetes is greater than for non-obese patients with diabetes, we found that patients with obesity are even further behind in achieving blood pressure control.

Stratifying Patients with Diabetes into Clinically Relevant Groups by Combination of Chronic Conditions to Identify Gaps in Quality of Care.

OBJECTIVE: To find clinically relevant combinations of chronic conditions among patients with diabetes and to examine their relationships with six diabetes quality metrics. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Twenty-nine thousand five hundred and sixty-two adult patients with diabetes seen at eight Midwestern U.S. health systems during 2010-2011. STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively evaluated the relationship between six diabetes quality metrics and patients' combinations of chronic conditions. We analyzed 12 conditions that were concordant with diabetes care to define five mutually exclusive combinations of conditions ("classes") based on condition co-occurrence. We used logistic regression to quantify the relationship between condition classes and quality metrics, adjusted for patient demographics and utilization. DATA COLLECTION: We extracted electronic health record data using a standardized algorithm. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found the following condition classes: severe cardiac, cardiac, noncardiac vascular, risk factors, and no concordant comorbidities. Adjusted odds ratios and 95 percent confidence intervals for glycemic control were, respectively, 1.95 (1.7-2.2), 1.6 (1.4-1.9), 1.3 (1.2-1.5), and 1.3 (1.2-1.4) compared to the class with no comorbidities. Results showed similar patterns for other metrics. CONCLUSIONS: Patients had distinct quality metric achievement by condition class, and those in less severe classes were less likely to achieve diabetes metrics.

The importance of frequent return visits and hypertension control among US young adults: a multidisciplinary group practice observational study.

Young adults (aged 18 to 39 years) have the lowest hypertension control rates compared with older adults. Shorter follow-up encounter intervals are associated with faster hypertension control rates in older adults; however, optimal intervals are unknown for young adults. The study objective was to evaluate the relationship between ambulatory blood pressure encounter intervals (average number of provider visits with blood pressures over time) and hypertension control rates among young adults with incident hypertension. A retrospective analysis was conducted of patients aged 18 to 39 years (n = 2990) with incident hypertension using Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox proportional hazards analyses over 24 months. Shorter encounter intervals were associated with higher hypertension control: <1 month (91%), 1 to 2 months (76%), 2 to 3 months (65%), 3 to 6 months (40%), and >6 months (13%). Young adults with shorter encounter intervals also had lower medication initiation, supporting the effectiveness of lifestyle modifications. Sustainable interventions for timely young adult follow-up are essential to improve hypertension control in this hard-to-reach population.

Reliability of Physician-Level Measures of Patient Experience in Primary Care.

BACKGROUND: Patient experience measures are widely used to compare performance at the individual physician level. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of unmeasured patient characteristics on visit-level patient experience measures and the sample sizes required to reliably measure patient experience at the primary care physician (PCP) level. DESIGN: Repeated cross-sectional design. SETTING: Academic family medicine practice in California. PARTICIPANTS: One thousand one hundred forty-one adult patients attending 1319 visits with 56 PCPs (including 45 resident and 11 faculty physicians). MEASUREMENTS: Post-visit patient experience surveys including patient measures used for standard adjustment as recommend by the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Consortium and additional patient characteristics used for expanded adjustment (including attitudes toward healthcare, global life satisfaction, patient personality, current symptom bother, and marital status). RESULTS: The amount of variance in patient experience explained doubled with expanded adjustment for patient characteristics compared with standard adjustment (R2 = 20.0% vs. 9.6%, respectively). With expanded adjustment, the amount of variance attributable to the PCP dropped from 6.1% to 3.4% and the required sample size to achieve a reliability of 0.90 in the physician-level patient experience measure increased from 138 to 255 patients per physician. After ranking of the 56 PCPs by average patient experience, 8 were reclassified into or out of the top or bottom quartiles of average experience with expanded as compared to standard adjustment [14.3% (95% CI: 7.0-25.2%)]. CONCLUSIONS: Widely used methods for measuring PCP-level patient experience may not account sufficiently for influential patient characteristics. If methods were adapted to account for these characteristics, patient sample sizes for reliable between-physician comparisons may be too large for most practices to obtain.

Increasing Consumer Engagement by Tailoring a Public Reporting Website on the Quality of Diabetes Care: A Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: The majority of health care utilization decisions in the United States are made by persons with multiple chronic conditions. Existing public reports of health system quality do not distinguish care for these persons and are often not used by the consumers they aim to reach. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to determine if tailoring quality reports to persons with diabetes mellitus and co-occurring chronic conditions would increase user engagement with a website that publicly reports the quality of diabetes care. METHODS: We adapted an existing consumer-focused public reporting website using adult learning theory to display diabetes quality reports tailored to the user's chronic condition profile. We conducted in-depth cognitive interviews with 20 individuals who either had diabetes and/or cared for someone with diabetes to assess the website. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed, then analyzed using thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Three themes emerged that suggested increased engagement from tailoring the site to a user's chronic conditions: ability to interact, relevance, and feeling empowered to act. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that tailoring can be used to improve public reporting sites for individuals with chronic conditions, ultimately allowing consumers to make more informed health care decisions.

Physician training in self-efficacy enhancing interviewing techniques (SEE IT): Effects on patient psychological health behavior change mediators.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how physician training in self-efficacy enhancing interviewing techniques (SEE IT) affects patient psychological health behavior change mediators (HBCMs). METHODS: We analyzed data from 131 patients visiting primary care physicians ≥4 months after the physicians participated in a randomized controlled trial. Experimental arm physicians (N=27) received SEE IT training during three ≤20min standardized patient instructor (SPI) visits. Control physicians (N=23) viewed a diabetes medications video during one SPI visit. Physicians were blinded to patient participation. Outcomes were self-care self-efficacy, readiness, and health locus of control (Internal, Chance, Powerful Others), examined as a summary HBCM score (average of standardized means) and individually. Analyses adjusted for pre-visit values of the dependent variables. RESULTS: Patients visiting SEE IT-trained physicians had higher summary HBCM scores (+0.42, 95% CI 0.07-0.77; p=0.021). They also had greater self-care readiness (AOR 3.04, 95% CI 1.02-9.03, p=0.046) and less Chance health locus of control (-0.27 points, 95% CI -0.50-0.04, p=0.023), with no significant differences in other HBCMs versus controls. CONCLUSION: Improvement in psychological HBCMs occurred among patients visiting SEE IT-trained physicians, PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: If further research shows the observed HBCM effects improve health behaviors and outcomes, SEE IT training might be offered widely to physicians.

The relationship of individual comorbid chronic conditions to diabetes care quality.

OBJECTIVE: Multimorbidity affects 26 million persons with diabetes, and care for comorbid chronic conditions may impact diabetes care quality. The aim of this study was to determine which chronic conditions were related to lack of achievement or achievement of diabetes care quality goals to determine potential targets for future interventions. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This is an exploratory retrospective analysis of electronic health record data for 23 430 adults, aged 18-75, with diabetes who were seen at seven Midwestern US health systems. The main outcome measures were achievement of six diabetes quality metrics in the reporting year, 2011 (glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) control and testing, low-density lipoprotein control and testing, blood pressure control, kidney testing). Explanatory variables were 62 chronic condition indicators. Analyses were adjusted for baseline patient sociodemographic and healthcare utilization factors. RESULTS: The 62 chronic conditions varied in their relationships to diabetes care goal achievement for specific care goals. Congestive heart failure was related to lack of achievement of cholesterol management goals. Obesity was related to lack of HbA1c and BP control. Mental health conditions were related to both lack of achievement and achievement of different care goals. Three conditions were related to lack of cholesterol testing, including congestive heart failure and substance-use disorders. Of 17 conditions related to achieving control goals, 16 were related to achieving HbA1c control. One-half of the comorbid conditions did not predict diabetes care quality. CONCLUSIONS: Future interventions could target patients at risk for not achieving diabetes care for specific care goals based on their individual comorbidities.

Establishing chronic condition concordance and discordance with diabetes: a Delphi study.

BACKGROUND: The vast majority of patients with diabetes have multiple chronic conditions, increasing complexity of care; however, clinical practice guidelines, interventions, and public reporting metrics do not adequately address the interaction of these multiple conditions. To advance the understanding of diabetes clinical care in the context of multiple chronic conditions, we must understand how care overlaps, or doesn't, between diabetes and its co-occurring conditions. This study aimed to determine which chronic conditions are concordant (share care goals with diabetes) and discordant (do not share care goals) with diabetes care, according to primary care provider expert opinion. METHODS: Using the Delphi technique, we administered an iterative, two-round survey to 16 practicing primary care providers in an academic practice in the Midwestern USA. The expert panel determined which specific diabetes care goals were also care goals for other chronic conditions (concordant) and which were not (discordant). Our diabetes care goals were those commonly used in quality reporting, and the conditions were 62 ambulatory-relevant condition categories. RESULTS: Sixteen experts participated and all completed both rounds. Consensus was reached on the first round for 94% of the items. After the second round, 12 conditions were concordant with diabetes care and 50 were discordant. Of the concordant conditions, 6 overlapped in care for 4 of 5 diabetes care goals and 6 overlapped for 3 of 5 diabetes care goals. Thirty-one discordant conditions did not overlap with any of the diabetes care goals, and 19 overlapped with only 1 or 2 goals. CONCLUSIONS: This study significantly adds to the number of conditions for which we have information on concordance and discordance for diabetes care. The results can be used for future studies to assess the impact of concordant and discordant conditions on diabetes care, and may prove useful in developing multimorbidity guidelines and interventions.

Diagnosis and treatment of incident hypertension among patients with diabetes: a U.S. multi-disciplinary group practice observational study.

BACKGROUND: Early hypertension control reduces the risk of cardiovascular complications among patients with diabetes mellitus. There is a need to improve hypertension management among patients with diabetes mellitus. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate rates and associations of hypertension diagnosis and treatment among patients with diabetes mellitus and incident hypertension. DESIGN: This was a 4-year retrospective analysis of electronic health records. PARTICIPANTS: Adults ≥ 18 years old (n = 771) with diabetes mellitus, who met criteria for incident hypertension and received primary care at a large, Midwestern academic group practice from 2008 to 2011 were included MAIN MEASURES: Cut-points of 130/80 and 140/90 mmHg were used to identify incident cases of hypertension. Kaplan-Meier analysis estimated the probability of receiving: 1) an initial hypertension diagnosis and 2) antihypertensive medication at specific time points. Cox proportional-hazard frailty models (HR; 95 % CI) were fit to identify associations of time to hypertension diagnosis and treatment. KEY RESULTS: Among patients with diabetes mellitus who met clinical criteria for hypertension, 41 % received a diagnosis and 37 % received medication using the 130/80 mmHg cut-point. At the 140/90 mmHg cut-point, 52 % received a diagnosis and 49 % received medication. Atrial fibrillation (HR 2.18; 1.21-4.67) was associated with faster diagnosis rates; peripheral vascular disease (HR 0.18; 0.04-0.74) and fewer primary care visits (HR 0.93; 0.88-0.98) were associated with slower diagnosis rates. Atrial fibrillation (HR 3.07; 1.39-6.74) and ischemic heart disease/congestive heart failure (HR 2.16; 1.24-3.76) were associated with faster treatment rates; peripheral vascular disease (HR 0.16; 0.04-0.64) and fewer visits (HR 0.93; 0.88-0.98) predicted slower medication initiation. Diagnosis and treatment of incident hypertension were similar using cut-points of 130/80 and 140/90 mmHg. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with diabetes mellitus, even using a cut-point of 140/90 mmHg, approximately 50 % remained undiagnosed and untreated for hypertension. Future interventions should target patients with multiple comorbidities to improve hypertension and diabetes clinical care.

The impact of a patient's concordant and discordant chronic conditions on diabetes care quality measures.

AIMS: Most patients with diabetes have comorbid chronic conditions that could support (concordant) or compete with (discordant) diabetes care. We sought to determine the impact of the number of concordant and discordant chronic conditions on diabetes care quality. METHODS: Logistic regression analysis of electronic health record data from 7 health systems on 24,430 patients with diabetes aged 18-75 years. Diabetes testing and control quality care goals were the outcome variables. The number of diabetes-concordant and the number of diabetes-discordant conditions were the main explanatory variables. Analysis was adjusted for health care utilization, health system and patient demographics. RESULTS: A higher number of concordant conditions were associated with higher odds of achieving testing and control goals for all outcomes except blood pressure control. There was no to minimal positive association between the number of discordant conditions and outcomes, except for cholesterol testing which was less likely with 4+ discordant conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Having more concordant conditions makes diabetes care goal achievement more likely. The number of discordant conditions has a smaller, inconsistently significant impact on diabetes goal achievement. Interventions to improve diabetes care need to align with a patient's comorbidities, including the absence of comorbidities, especially concordant comorbidities.