Informing the Design and Evaluation of Superuser Care Management Initiatives: Accounting for Regression-to-the-Mean.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Health care spending is concentrated among a small number of high-cost patients, and the popularity of initiatives to improve care and reduce cost among such "superusers" (SUs) is growing. However, SU costs decline naturally over time, even without intervention, a statistical phenomenon known as regression-to-the-mean (RTM).

Objectives

We assess the magnitude of RTM in hospital costs for cohorts of hospital SUs identified on the basis of high inpatient (IP) or emergency department (ED) utilization. We further examine how cost and RTM are associated with patient characteristics including behavioral health (BH) problems, multiple chronic conditions, and indicators of vulnerability.

Study design

Using longitudinally linked all-payer hospital billing data, we s

SUBMITTER: Chakravarty S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4981218 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature