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Observational Study
. 2017 Dec;23(6):1451-1458.
doi: 10.1111/jep.12821. Epub 2017 Oct 6.

The impact of improving access to primary care

David P Glass  1 , Michael H Kanter  2 , Steven J Jacobsen  3 , Paul M Minardi  4
Affiliations
Observational Study

The impact of improving access to primary care

David P Glass et al. J Eval Clin Pract. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: To measure the size and timing of changes in utilization and costs for employees and dependents who had major access barriers to primary care removed, across an 8-year period (2007 to 2014).

Study design and methods: Retrospective observational study examining patterns of utilization and costs before and after the implementation of a worksite medical office in 2010. The worksite office offered convenient primary care services with no travel from work, essentially guaranteed same day access, and no co-pay. Trends in visit rates and costs were compared for an intervention fixed cohort group (employees and dependents) at the employer (n = 1211) with a control fixed cohort group (n = 542 162) for 6 types of visits (primary, urgent, emergency, inpatient, specialty, and other outpatient). Difference-in-differences methods assessed the significance of between-group changes in utilization and costs.

Results: The worksite medical office intervention group had an increase in primary care visits relative to the control group (+43% vs +4%, P < 0.001). This was accompanied by a reduction in urgent care visits by the intervention group compared with the control group (-43% vs -5%, P < 0.001). There were no differences in the other types of visits, and the total visit costs for the intervention group increased 5.7% versus 2.7% for the control group (P = 0.008). A sub-group analysis of the intervention group (comparing dependents to employees) found that that the dependents achieved a reduction in costs of 2.7% (P < 0.001) across the study period.

Conclusions: The potential for long-term reduction in utilization and costs with better access to primary care is significant, but not easily nor automatically achieved.

Keywords: access; costs; primary care access; primary care shortage; utilization; worksite medical office.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
% change in average annual cost*: Post (2010–2014) vs pre intervention (2007–2009)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Trend of medical costs from 2007 to 2014 (costs per member per year)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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