Characterizing managing physicians by claims sequences in episodes of care.

Value-based healthcare in the US is a payment structure that ties reimbursement to quality rather than volume alone. One model of value-based care is the Tennessee Division of TennCare's Episodes of Care program, which groups common health conditions into episodes using specified time windows, medical code sets and quality metrics as defined in each episode's Detailed Business Requirements [1,2]. Tennessee's program assigns responsibility for an episode to a managing physician, presenting a unique opportunity to study physician variability in cost and quality within these structured episodes.

Differential classification of infants in United States neonatal intensive care units for weight, length, and head circumference by United States and international growth curves.

Background: Clinicians and researchers use a variety of intrauterine growth curves to classify NICU infants as small (SGA), appropriate (AGA), or large for gestational age (LGA). Since curve creation methods and samples vary, SGA/AGA/LGA cut-offs and resulting subgroups of infants vary among curves and impact outcome study findings - limiting generalisability.

Aim: Determine how two international and two US-specific curves classified US NICU infants.