Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration on quality of care.

Objectives: We evaluated whether primary care practices in the Medicare Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice (MAPCP) Demonstration improved the quality of care and patient outcomes for beneficiaries.

Study Design: For our quantitative analyses, we employed a pre-post study design with a comparison group using enrollment data, Medicare fee-for-service claims data, and Medicaid managed care and fee-for-service claims data, covering the period 2 to 4 years before Medicare joined the state patient-centered medical home initiatives through December 2014. We used difference-in-differences (DID) regression analysis to compare quality and outcomes in the period before and after the demonstration began.

Methods: We examined the extent to which MAPCP and comparison group beneficiaries received up to 11 process and preventive care measures, as well as 4 measures of potentially avoidable hospitalizations to assess patient outcomes.

Results: Analyses of Medicare and Medicaid data did not consistently reflect the positive impacts intended by the demonstration. Our descriptive and DID analysis found an inconsistent pattern among the process-of-care results, and there were some significant unfavorable associations between participation in MAPCP and avoidable hospitalizations.

Conclusions: Our analyses showed few statistically significant, favorable impacts on quality metrics among Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries receiving care from MAPCP practices.