title: Effects of a Medical Home and Shared Savings Intervention on Quality and Utilization of Care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Published evaluations of medical home interventions have found limited effects on quality and utilization of care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To measure associations between participation in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chronic Care Initiative and changes in quality and utilization of care.
  
  
  METHODS
  The northeast region of the Pennsylvania Chronic Care Initiative began in October 2009, included 2 commercial health plans and 27 volunteering small primary care practice sites, and was designed to run for 36 months. Both participating health plans provided medical claims and enrollment data spanning October 1, 2007, to September 30, 2012 (2 years prior to and 3 years after the pilot inception date). We analyzed medical claims for 17,363 patients attributed to 27 pilot and 29 comparison practices, using difference-in-difference methods to estimate changes in quality and utilization of care associated with pilot participation.
  
  
  METHODS
  The intervention included learning collaboratives, disease registries, practice coaching, payments to support care manager salaries and practice transformation, and shared savings incentives (bonuses of up to 50% of any savings generated, contingent on meeting quality targets). As a condition of participation, pilot practices were required to attain recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance as medical homes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Performance on 6 quality measures for diabetes and preventive care; utilization of hospital, emergency department, and ambulatory care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All pilot practices received recognition as medical homes during the intervention. By intervention year 3, relative to comparison practices, pilot practices had statistically significantly better performance on 4 process measures of diabetes care and breast cancer screening; lower rates of all-cause hospitalization (8.5 vs 10.2 per 1000 patients per month; difference, -1.7 [95% CI, -3.2 to -0.03]), lower rates of all-cause emergency department visits (29.5 vs 34.2 per 1000 patients per month; difference, -4.7 [95% CI, -8.7 to -0.9]), lower rates of ambulatory care-sensitive emergency department visits (16.2 vs 19.4 per 1000 patients per month; difference, -3.2 [95% CI, -5.7 to -0.9]), lower rates of ambulatory visits to specialists (104.9 vs 122.2 per 1000 patients per month; difference, -17.3 [95% CI, -26.6 to -8.0]); and higher rates of ambulatory primary care visits (349.0 vs 271.5 per 1000 patients per month; difference, 77.5 [95% CI, 37.3 to 120.5]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  During a 3-year period, this medical home intervention, which included shared savings for participating practices, was associated with relative improvements in quality, increased primary care utilization, and lower use of emergency department, hospital, and specialty care. With further experimentation and evaluation, such interventions may continue to become more effective.
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts2Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts3Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Mark W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Friedberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Meredith B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania6Division of General Internal Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
authors.forename: Rachel M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania6Division of General Internal Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia7Division of General Internal Med.
authors.forename: Kevin G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Volpp
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts2Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts3Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts4Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard Sc.
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Schneider
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D017046:Cost Savings; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000592:standards; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive; D055815:Young Adult