Journal of general internal medicine
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Editorial
Direct Primary Care: Financial Analysis and Potential to Reshape the U.S. Healthcare Landscape.
As the United States faces a looming shortage of primary care physicians and escalating rates of clinician burnout, there is a pressing need to explore alternative models of primary care delivery. Direct Primary Care (DPC) is an emerging primary care model in which patients enroll in a membership plan and make direct monthly or yearly payments to a DPC practice for specific primary care services. ⋯ We demonstrate that the DPC practice can yield upwards of $25,000 in annual cost savings over the FFS practice while also providing more personalized patient care. Thus, we argue that the cost-effectiveness and value-based approach of DPC positions the model as a transformative force in reshaping the American healthcare landscape towards a more patient-centric, accessible, and resilient future.
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Many social need screening to advance population health and reduce health disparities, but barriers to screening remain. Improved knowledge of patient populations at risk for social needs based on administrative data could facilitate more targeted practices, and by extension, feasible social need screening and referral efforts. ⋯ The identification of characteristics associated with increased unmet social needs may provide opportunities for targeted screenings. As this cluster was also younger and had fewer comorbidities, they may be less likely to be identified as experiencing need through interactions with healthcare providers.
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Observational Study
No Association Between Medicare Advantage Providers' Network Restrictiveness and Star Rating Between 2013 and 2017: An Observational Study.
Medicare beneficiaries are increasingly enrolling in Medicare Advantage (MA), which employs a wide range of practices around restriction of the networks of providers that beneficiaries visit. Though Medicare beneficiaries highly value provider choice, it is unknown whether the MA contract quality metrics which beneficiaries use to inform their contract selection capture the restrictiveness of contracts' provider networks. ⋯ Our findings suggest that existing MA contract quality measures are not useful for indicating differences in network restrictiveness. Given the importance of provider choice to beneficiaries, more specific metrics may be needed to facilitate informed decisions about MA coverage.
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Mistreatment from patients is prevalent and has far-reaching negative consequences. ⋯ A novel patient-initiated mistreatment curriculum empowered students, resulting in enhanced confidence in responding and sustained skill usage. Medical schools may consider including this training for all graduating students.
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Healthcare provided without attending to patients' religious/spiritual needs contributes to inequities. ⋯ Muslim Americans have substantial unmet religious/spiritual resource needs in hospital settings. Patient-centered, equitable care may be enhanced by clinicians inquiring about, and mobilizing resources to attend to these.