ArticleAnnals of family medicine
Provider continuity in family medicine: does it make a difference for total health care costs?
Article in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Challenges in Help-Seeking Behaviors among Rural Older People Mitigated through Family Physician-Driven Outreach: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of continuity of care on health outcomes among patients with diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension: a systematic review.BMC family practice · 2021Pooled it
- The equity dimension in evaluations of the quality and outcomes framework: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2011Pooled it
- The breadth of primary care: a systematic literature review of its core dimensions.BMC health services research · 2010Pooled it
- Urban-Rural Differences in Mental and Physical Health among Primary Care Patients with Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Secondary Analysis from a Randomized Clinical Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Cost savings from primary care clinic continuity among patients with chronic disease in Alberta, Canada: a retrospective population-level cross-sectional study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Developing a framework for primary health care resilience in pandemic conditions for Iran.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2026Article
- Continuity of Care in Federally Qualified Health Centers: Examining Patient-Provider Relationships and Patient Centered Medical Home Recognition.Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM · 2025Article
- Using Interpersonal Continuity of Care in Home Health Physical Therapy to Reduce Hospital Readmissions.Home health care management & practice · 2025Article
- Impact of the Basic Mandatory Health Insurance "AMO-Tadamon" on Continuity of Care Among Breast Cancer Patients Treated at the Oncology Center of the CHU Mohammed VI in Tangier: A Mixed Longitudinal Cohort Study.Cancer management and research · 2025Article
- Article
- Primary care utilisation, adherence to guideline-based pharmacotherapy and continuity of care in primary care patients with chronic diseases and multimorbidity - a cross-sectional study.BMC primary care · 2023Article
- Primary Care Continuity, Frequency, and Regularity Associated With Medicare Savings.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Additional medical costs of chronic conditions among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2022Article
- Does a policy that requires adherence to a regular primary care physician improve the actual adherence of patients?Israel journal of health policy research · 2021Article
- Evaluation of primary care services in Hungary: a comprehensive description of provision, professional competences, cooperation, financing, and infrastructure, based on the findings of the Hungarian-arm of the QUALICOPC study.Primary health care research & development · 2021Article
- Expectations, values, preferences and experiences of Hungarian primary care population when accessing services: Evaluation of the patient's questionnaires of the international QUALICOPC study.Primary health care research & development · 2021Article
- Stay in treatment: Predicting dropout from pediatric weight management study protocol.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2021Article
- The effect of continuity of care on medical costs in patients with chronic shoulder pain.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The power of personal care: the value of the patient-GP consultation.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInternational comparisons of health care systems have shown a relationship at the macro level between a well-structured primary health care plan and lower total health care costs. The objective of this study was to assess whether provider continuity with a family physician is related to lower health care costs using the individual patient as the unit of analysis.
methodsWe undertook a study of a stratified sample of patients (age, sex, region, insurance company) for which 2 cohorts were constructed based on the patients' utilization pattern of family medicine (provider continuity or not). Patient utilization patterns were observed for 2 years. The setting was the Belgian health care system. The participants were 4,134 members of the 2 largest health insurance companies in 2 regions (Aalst and Liège). The main outcome measures were the total health care costs of patients with and without provider continuity with a family physician, controlling for variables known to influence health care utilization (need factors, predisposing factors, enabling factors).
resultsBivariate analyses showed that patients who were visiting the same family physician had a lower total cost for medical care. A multivariate linear regression showed that provider continuity with a family physician was one of the most important explanatory variables related to the total health care cost.
conclusionsProvider continuity with a family physician is related to lower total health care costs. This finding brings evidence to the debate on the importance of structured primary health care (with high continuity for family practice) for a cost-effective health policy.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.