Continuity of Care and Healthcare Costs among Patients with Chronic Disease: Evidence from Primary Care Settings in China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Though critical to primary care, continuity of care has rarely been examined in China. This study aims to assess the relationship between continuity of care and healthcare costs among patients with chronic diseases within primary care settings in China.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we used a social health insurance claims dataset of 1406 patients with hypertension and/or diabetes in Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province collected in 2017-2019. We measured continuity of care using the Bice-Boxerman Continuity of Care (COC) Index, Herfindahl Index (HI), Sequential Continuity of Care (SECON) Index, Usual Provider of Care (UPC), and a binary variable indicating whether a patient's UPC was a primary care provider. We examined the associations between continuity of c

SUBMITTER: Liang D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9562970 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature