• David J Nyweide, Andrea M Austin, and BynumJulie P WJPWDepartment of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA..
• Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Baltimore, MD, USA. david.nyweide@cms.hhs.gov.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Feb 1; 37 (2): 283289283-289.

BackgroundIt is not uncommon for medical specialists to predominantly care for patients with certain chronic conditions rather than primary care physicians (PCPs), yet the resource implications from such patterns of care are not well understood.ObjectiveTo assess resource use of diabetes patients who predominantly visit a PCP versus a medical specialist.DesignRetrospective cohort study of diabetes patients aging into the traditional Medicare program. Patients were attributed to a PCP or medical specialist annually based on a preponderance of ambulatory care visits and categorized according to whether attribution changed year to year. Propensity score weighting was used to balance baseline demographic characteristics, diabetes complications, and underlying health conditions between patients attributed to PCPs and to medical specialists. Spending and utilization were measured up to 3 patient-years.SubjectsA total of 141,558 patient-years.Main MeasuresTotal visits, unique physicians, hospital admissions, emergency department visits, procedures, imaging, and tests.Key ResultsEach year, roughly 70% of patients maintained attribution to a PCP and 15% to a medical specialist relative to the previous year. After propensity weighting, patients continuously attributed to a PCP versus medical specialist from 1 year to the next had lower average total payer payments ($10,326 [SD $57,386] versus $14,971 [SD $74,112], P<0.0001) and lower total patient out-of-pocket payments ($1,707 [SD $6,020] versus $2,443 [SD $7,984], P<0.0001). Rates of hospitalization, emergency department visits, procedures, imaging, and tests were lower among patients attributed to PCPs as well.ConclusionsOlder adults with diabetes who receive more of their ambulatory care from a PCP instead of a medical specialist show evidence of lower resource use.© 2021. This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply.

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