To compare total annual costs for Medicare beneficiaries receiving primary care in federally funded health centers (s) to Medicare beneficiaries in physician offices and outpatient clinics.
Data Sources/Study Settings
Part A and B fee‐for‐service Medicare claims from 14 geographically diverse states. The sample was restricted to beneficiaries residing within primary care service areas (s) with at least one .
We modeled separately total annual costs, annual primary care costs, and annual nonprimary care costs as a function of patient characteristics and fixed effects.
Data were obtained from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Total median annual costs (at $2,370) for Medicare patients were lower by 10 percent compared to patients in physician offices ($2,667) and by 30 percent compared to patients in outpatient clinics ($3,580). This was due to lower nonprimary care costs in s, despite higher primary care costs.
s may offer lower total cost practice style to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare. Future research should examine whether these lower costs reflect better management by practitioners or more limited access to specialty care by patients.
