The impact of contract primary care on health care expenditures and quality of care.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) established community-based outpatient clinics to improve veterans' access to primary care. This article compares VA use and expenditures among primary care users at 76 VA-staffed community clinics (n = 17,060) and 32 non-VA contract community clinics receiving capitation (n = 6,842) using VA administrative databases. It estimates utilization using negative binomial models and expenditures using generalized linear one-part or two-part models. Contract community clinic patients are less likely to use all types of outpatient services than VA-staffed community clinic patients but had similar quality of care. For patients seeking care, contract community clinic patients had similar specialty care expenditures but lower primary care, outpatient, and overall expenditures. Results suggest that capitated contract clinics did not shift costs to specialty care and appeared to be an economically efficient mechanism for improving veterans' access to primary care while meeting VA quality of care standards.
Liu
Chuan-Fen
CF
VA Puget Sound Health Care System and University of Washington.
Chapko
Michael K
MK
Perkins
Mark W
MW
Fortney
John
J
Maciejewski
Matthew L
ML
D000368:Aged; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003284:Contract Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs; D014600:Utilization Review