Dataset Information

The effects of global budget payments on hospital utilization in rural Maryland.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess the effect of Maryland's 2010 Total Patient Revenue (TPR) global budget reform in eight rural hospitals on population-level hospital rates of utilization three years after implementation.

Data sources/study setting

Data on all inpatient discharges and outpatient department visits from the Health Services Cost Review Commission, population data from Claritas Demographic Reports, and county-level data from the Area Health Resource File.

Study design

We use a difference-in-differences approach to compare changes in utilization rates over time in the reform areas comprising 125 Zip Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) and in two control hospital areas (66 ZCTAs and 327 ZCTAs, respectively). We examine several inpatient and outpatient measures and distinguish between relatively discretionary and nondiscretionary utilization.

Data collection

Admissions data are hospital-reported discharge abstracts of all encounters in Maryland during 2008-2013. Population data are derived from the US Census.

Principal findings

We find no statistically significant changes in admissions, either overall or discretionary. We find a statistically significant 8.9 percent (95%CI = [1.8, 16.0]) reduction in outpatient visits, with a statistically significant reduction of 14.8 percent (95%CI = [5.3, 24.3]) visits not to the Emergency Department.

Conclusions

We find that the TPR reform decreased outpatient utilization but did not affect inpatient utilization.

SUBMITTER: Done N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6505416 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

The effects of global budget payments on hospital utilization in rural Maryland.

Done Nicolae N Herring Bradley B Xu Tim T

Health services research 20190601 3

<h4>Objective</h4>To assess the effect of Maryland's 2010 Total Patient Revenue (TPR) global budget reform in eight rural hospitals on population-level hospital rates of utilization three years after implementation.<h4>Data sources/study setting</h4>Data on all inpatient discharges and outpatient department visits from the Health Services Cost Review Commission, population data from Claritas Demographic Reports, and county-level data from the Area Health Resource File.<h4>Study design</h4>We use ...[more]

PMID: 31066468

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Project description:Importance:In 2014, the State of Maryland placed the majority of its hospitals under all-payer global budgets for inpatient, hospital outpatient, and emergency department care. Goals of the program included reducing unnecessary hospital utilization and encouraging greater use of primary care. Objective:To compare changes in hospital and primary care use through the first 2 years of Maryland's hospital global budget program among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries in Maryland vs matched control areas. Design, Setting, and Participants:We matched 8 Maryland counties (94 967 beneficiaries) with hospitals in the program to 27 non-Maryland control counties (206 389 beneficiaries). Using difference-in-differences analysis, we compared changes in hospital and primary care use in Maryland vs the control counties from before (2009-2013) to after (2014-2015) the payment change, using 2 different assumptions. First, we assumed that preintervention differences between Maryland and the control counties would have remained constant past 2014 had Maryland not implemented global budgets (parallel trend assumption). Second, we assumed that differences in preintervention trends would have continued without the payment change (differential trend assumption). Main Outcomes and Measures:Hospital stays (defined as admissions and observation stays); return hospital stays within 30 days of a prior hospital stay; emergency department visits that did not result in admission; price-standardized hospital outpatient department (HOPD) utilization; and visits with primary care physicians (overall and within 7 days of a hospital stay). Results:We matched 8 Maryland counties with hospitals in the program (94 967 beneficiaries; 41.8% male; mean [SD] age, 72.3 [12.2] years) to 27 non-Maryland control counties (206 389 beneficiaries; 42.8% male; mean [SD] age, 71.7 [12.5] years). Assuming parallel trends, we estimated a differential change in Maryland of -0.47 annual hospital stays per 100 beneficiaries (95% CI, -1.65 to 0.72; P = .43) from the preintervention period (2009-2013) to 2015, but assuming differential trends, we estimated a differential change in Maryland of -1.24 stays per 100 beneficiaries (95% CI, -2.46 to -0.02; P = .047). Assuming parallel trends, we found a significant increase in primary care visits (+10.6 annual visits/100 beneficiaries; 95% CI, 4.6 to 16.6 annual visits/100 beneficiaries; P = .001), but assuming differential trends, we found no change (-0.8 visits/100 beneficiaries; 95% CI, -10.6 to 9.0 visits/100 beneficiaries; P = .87). Comparing estimates with both trend assumptions, we found no consistent changes in emergency department visits, return hospital stays, HOPD use, or posthospitalization primary care visits associated with Maryland's program. Conclusions and Relevance:We did not find consistent evidence that Maryland's hospital global budget program was associated with reductions in hospital use or increases in primary care visits among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries after 2 years. Evaluations over longer periods should be pursued.

Project description:ImportanceTelemedicine is increasingly used to provide outpatient pediatric neurology consultations in underserved communities. Although telemedicine clinics have been shown to improve access, little is known about how they alter patients' utilization of hospital services.ObjectiveTo evaluate the association between access to telemedicine clinics and hospital utilization among underserved children with neurologic conditions.Design, setting, and participantsThis retrospective cross-sectional study included 4169 patients who received outpatient care from pediatric neurologists affiliated with an academic children's hospital in California between January 1, 2009, and July 31, 2017, either in person or using telemedicine.ExposuresConsultation modality (telemedicine or in person) in the outpatient neurology clinics.Main outcomes and measuresDemographic and clinical variables were abstracted from the hospital's electronic medical records. The association between the modality of outpatient neurology care and patients' utilization of the emergency department and hospitalizations was evaluated. Both all-cause and neurologic condition-related hospital utilization were analyzed using multivariable negative binomial regression in overall and matched samples.ResultsThe telemedicine cohort comprised 378 patients (211 [55.8%] male), and the in-person cohort comprised 3791 patients (2090 [55.1%] male). The mean (SD) age at the first encounter was 7.4 (5.4) years for the telemedicine cohort and 7.8 (5.1) years for the in-person cohort. The telemedicine cohort was more likely than the in-person cohort to have nonprivate insurance (public insurance, self-pay, or uninsured), lower education, and lower household income. The rates of all-cause and neurologic hospital encounters were lower among children who received pediatric neurology consultations over telemedicine compared with children who received care in the in-person clinics (5.7 [95% CI, 3.5-8.0] vs 20.1 [95% CI, 18.1-22.1] per 100 patient-years and 3.7 [95% CI, 2.0-5.3] vs 8.9 [95% CI, 7.8-10.0] per 100 patient-years, respectively; P?<?.001). Even after adjusting for demographic and clinical factors, the telemedicine cohort had a lower risk of hospital encounters (emergency department visits and admissions) with an adjusted incidence rate ratio of 0.57 (95% CI, 0.38-0.88) for all-cause encounters and an adjusted incidence rate ratio of 0.60 (95% CI, 0.36-0.99) for neurologic encounters. After matching on travel time to the neurology clinic, the adjusted incidence rate ratio was 0.19 (95% CI, 0.04-0.83) for all-cause admissions and 0.14 (95% CI, 0.02-0.82) for neurologic admissions.Conclusions and relevancePediatric neurology care through real-time, audiovisual telemedicine consultations was associated with lower hospital utilization compared with in-person consultations, suggesting that high-cost hospital encounters can be prevented by improving subspecialty access.

Dataset Information

The effects of global budget payments on hospital utilization in rural Maryland.

Objective

Data sources/study setting

Study design

Data collection

Principal findings

Conclusions

Publications

The effects of global budget payments on hospital utilization in rural Maryland.

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