An Association Between Cardiologist Billing Patterns, Health Care Use, and Outcomes in Cardiac Patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Whether individual cardiologist billings are associated with differences in ambulatory care management and clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure (HF) remains poorly understood.

Methods

We conducted a population-based, retrospective cohort study of cardiologists who treat patients with CAD or HF using administrative claims data in Ontario, Canada. The primary exposure was cardiologist billing quintile. We then stratified median billing amounts into quintiles, from lowest (quintile 1) to highest billing physicians (quintile 5).

Results

The main outcomes of interest were cardiac diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that occurred within 365 days of the index visit. Our 2 cohorts respectively consisted of 170,959 pat

SUBMITTER: Bhatia RS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8209405 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature