Outpatient Care Among Users and Nonusers of Direct-to-Patient Telehealth: Observational Study.

Background: Expansion of telehealth insurance coverage is hampered by concerns that such coverage may encourage excessive use and spending.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to examine whether users of telehealth services rely more on other forms of outpatient care than nonusers, and to estimate the differences in payment rates.

Methods: We examined claims data from a large national insurer in 2017.

Care Experiences of Patients with Multiple Chronic Conditions in a Payer-Based Patient-Centered Medical Home.

Individuals with multiple chronic health conditions require additional support and medical services, incur higher health care costs, and often have a higher risk of hospitalization. The goal of this study was to examine care experiences of patients with multiple chronic conditions in the CareFirst patient-centered medical home (PCMH). The study used a repeated cross-sectional research design and included 1308 adult CareFirst plan members with multiple chronic conditions.

The CareFirst Patient-Centered Medical Home Program: Cost and Utilization Effects in Its First Three Years.

Background: Enhanced primary care models have diffused slowly and shown uneven results. Because their structural features are costly and challenging for small practices to implement, they offer modest rewards for improved performance, and improvement takes time.

Objective: To test whether a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model that significantly rewarded cost savings and accommodated small primary care practices was associated with lower spending, fewer hospital admissions, and fewer emergency room visits.