Annals of family medicine
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Annals of family medicine · Sep 2020
Trends in Total and Out-of-Pocket Expenditures for Visits to Primary Care Physicians, by Insurance Type, 2002-2017.
Total and out-of-pocket visit expenditures for primary care physician visits may affect how primary care is delivered. We determined trends in these expenditures for visits to US primary care physicians. ⋯ Between 2002 and 2017, mean total expenditures and out-of-pocket expenditures increased for primary care visits, but at notably lower rates than those previously documented for emergency department visits. A rise in total expenditure per visit was identified for private insurance and Medicare, but not for Medicaid. Out-of-pocket expenditures increased marginally related to changes in out-of-pocket expenditures for private insurance visits. We would expect increasing difficulty with primary care physician access, particularly for Medicaid patients, if the current trends continue.
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Annals of family medicine · Jul 2020
Multicenter StudyTransforming Primary Care for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: A Collaborative Quality Improvement Initiative.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people experience multiple disparities in access to care and health outcomes. We developed a quality improvement initiative, Transforming Primary Care for LGBT People, to enhance the capacity of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) to provide culturally affirming care for this population. ⋯ FQHCs participating in this initiative reported improved capacity to provide culturally affirming care and targeted screening for LGBT patients.
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Annals of family medicine · Jul 2020
Redesigning Primary Care to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Midst of the Pandemic.
During a pandemic, primary care is the first line of defense. It is able to reinforce public health messages, help patients manage at home, and identify those in need of hospital care. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care scrambled to rapidly transform itself and protect clinicians, staff, and patients while remaining connected to patients. ⋯ Throughout, practices bore tremendous financial burden, laying off staff or even closing at a time when most needed. Primary care must learn from this experience and be ready for the next pandemic. Policymakers and payers cannot fail primary care during their next time of need.
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Annals of family medicine · Jul 2020
Using Machine Learning to Predict Primary Care and Advance Workforce Research.
To develop and test a machine-learning-based model to predict primary care and other specialties using Medicare claims data. ⋯ This novel approach showed high performance and provides a near real-time assessment of current primary care practice. These findings have important implications for primary care workforce research in the absence of accurate data.