ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2022
Costs of Specialist Referrals From Employer-Sponsored Integrated Health Care Clinics Are Lower Than Those From Community Providers.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Operational Impact of Neurology Rural Access Model: Reflections on the Importance of Demand-Shaping.Neurology. Clinical practice · 2024Article
- External Vs Internal e-Referrals: Results from a Nationwide Epidemiological Study Utilizing Secondary Collected Data.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere have been very few published studies of referral management among commercially insured populations and none on referral management from employer-sponsored health centers.
objectiveDescribe the referral management system of an integrated employer-sponsored health care system and compare specialist referral rates and costs of specialist visits between those initiated from employer-sponsored health clinics and those initiated from community providers.
designRetrospective, comparative cohort study using multivariate analysis of medical claims comparing care initiated in employer-sponsored health clinics with propensity-matched controls having specialist referrals initiated by community providers. PATIENTS: Adult patients (≥ 18 years) eligible for employer-sponsored clinical services incurring medical claims for specialist referrals between 12/1/2018 and 12/31/2020. The study cohort was comprised of 3129 receiving more than 75% of their care in the employer-sponsored clinic matched to a cohort of 3129 patients receiving care in the community.
interventionSpecialist referral management program implemented by Crossover Health employer-sponsored clinics. MAIN MEASURES: Rates and costs of specialist referrals. KEY
resultsThe relative rate of specialist referrals was 22% lower among patients receiving care in employers-sponsored health clinics (35.1%) than among patients receiving care in the community (45%, p <0.001). The total per-user per-month cost for patients in the study cohort was $372 (SD $894), compared to $401 (SD $947) for the community cohort, a difference of $29 (p<0.001) and a relative reduction of 7.2%. The lower costs can be attributed, in part, to lower specialist care costs ($63 (SD $140) vs $76 (SD $213) (p<0.001).
conclusionsEmployer-sponsored health clinics can provide effective integrated care and may be able to reduce avoidable specialist utilization. Standardized referral management and care navigation may drive lower specialist spend, when referrals are needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.