Trends in Outpatient Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Implications for Primary Care, 2000 to 2019.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite the central role of primary care in improving health system performance, there are little recent data on how use of primary care and specialists has evolved over time and its implications for the range of care coordination needed in primary care.

Objective

To describe trends in outpatient care delivery and the implications for primary care provider (PCP) care coordination.

Design

Descriptive, repeated, cross-sectional study using Medicare claims from 2000 to 2019, with direct standardization used to control for changes in beneficiary characteristics over time.

Setting

Traditional fee-for-service Medicare.

Patients

20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries.

Measurements

Annual counts of outpatient visits and procedures, the number of

SUBMITTER: Barnett ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8688292 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature