title: Comparative performance of community health centers and other usual sources of primary care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine how Community Health Centers (CHCs) perform relative to other primary care providers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cohort study of Medicaid claims comparing provider groups on the basis of avoidable hospitalizations and costs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Avoidable hospitalization rates did not differ significantly across care settings. Hospital outpatient departments and CHCs had comparable total costs, whereas physicians had slightly but significantly lower total costs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Understanding determinants of care cost differences could inform future performance improvement initiatives. Care quality variance within provider groups may be more significant than care quality performance across care settings.
authors.affiliation: Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA. gurewich@brandeis.edu
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gurewich
authors.forename: Karen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Tyo
authors.forename: Junya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Donald S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Shepard
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003151:Community Health Centers; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D008297:Male; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult