Project Description
There is significant variation in the practice patterns of Primary Care Providers (PCPs) in the US (across the nation, states, regions and local communities). This variation results in significant differences in cost and quality of care between different PCPs (both individual practitioners and groups). Due to data set limitations and limits in the patient panel size for any one payer it can be difficult to develop benchmarks for cost and quality indicators that allow comparisons to be made between individuals and groups in a defined geographic area or payer network. These limitations make it difficult for payers to prioritise care of their patients to PCPs who optimise cost and quality. This project will use claims data to develop benchmarks and an analytical model that allows comparisons of the practice patterns within PCPs to be made.
Project Objectives
This project aims to analyse and develop benchmarks for basic characteristics of PCP practice patterns. These benchmarks would allow payers to evaluate cost effectiveness and quality among providers in their network and compare this to local, regional and national benchmarks. Basic measures would include referral rates, patterns of treatment, cost of care, utilisation rates and quality measures among other indicators. An analytical model will be developed for running comparisons of individual or group PCP practices against the benchmarks.
Industry Participant
HMS
Donna Price, Vice President
Research Participant
The University of Sydney
Junlin Lin (Masters student)
Dr Hanieh Poostchi Mohammadabad (Academic mentor)
Dr Audrey P Wang (Supervisor)
Project Value:
$35,680
