The relationships between access to and use of a patient-centered medical home and healthcare utilization and costs: A cohort study using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data from 2007 to 2010

Objective The patient-centered medical home has emerged as an innovative healthcare delivery model that holds the conceptual promise to improve healthcare quality while reducing costs. This study is among the first to examine how patient perceived patient-centered medical home is related to utilization and costs for emergency department and inpatient care nationwide in the U.S. Methods This retrospective cohort study used data from the 2007–2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. This study focused upon insured individuals aged 18 and older. In each two-year cohort, we measured and identified a full patient-centered medical home group, a partial patient-centered medical home group (with a usual source of care but not a patient-centered medical home), and an unknown patient-centered medical home group. Using negative binomial regression and generalized linear models, we conducted the analysis while controlling for covariates at baseline. Given the nature of the complex survey design, we adjusted weights and variance. Results The study sample consisted of 15,595 individuals, representing a total of 368 million people in the U.S. In the trend of outcome changes from the baseline to the follow-up year, the full and partial patient-centered medical home groups demonstrated reduced efficiency for the 2007–2008 cohort, but increased efficiency for the 2009–2010 cohort, as compared to the no regular provider group. Conclusions Overall, the empirical evidence does not indicate whether patient-centered medical home models reduce healthcare utilization and costs, but it does suggest their potential as mechanisms for achieving healthcare system efficiency, when primary care practices have grown from early to middle stage of patient-centered medical home transformation. A longer observation window and holistic view on all stages of patient-centered medical home growth may be more informative on patient-centered medical home’s efficiency.