Characteristics of Practices Used as Source of Care Providers

Characteristics of Practices Used as Usual Source of Care Providers during 2015, a statistical brief from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, provides characteristics of patients' usual source of care providers between practice characteristics and patients' experiences with care, including access to care, service use, quality of care, and expenditures. This is the first Federal survey that has the capability of directly linking practice characteristics with patients’ experiences.

The U.S. office-based physician market has experienced substantial changes in recent years. A growing number of office-based physicians are practicing in large group practices, and vertical integration between hospitals and physician group practices through ownership and contractual relationships has accelerated. Understanding the organizational characteristics of office-based physicians and how those characteristics are associated with use and costs of care are critical to informing policies designed to promote high-quality and efficient health care delivery.

In 2015, an estimated 80 percent of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population, about 250.5 million people, had a usual source of care, and, of those persons, about 60 percent (150.8 million people) had an office based usual source of care who they saw at least once during the year.

Based on these criteria, estimates presented in this brief reflect the characteristics of people in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population who had a usual source of care that was a physician in an office based setting and who visited that usual source of care in 2015.

Highlights

• Nearly two-thirds (61.8 percent) of children with a usual source of care provider and who visited them during 2015 had a usual source of care that was an independent practice, compared to only about half of non-elderly adults.
• The largest proportion of children and the elderly visited medium-sized practices that had between 4 and 10 physicians working full or part time at the practice.
• For children, adults, and the elderly, about half of those who visited a usual source of care in 2015 visited a practice that had 2 or more nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants.
• An overwhelming majority of practices (95 percent or higher) visited as USC providers by children, adults, and the elderly routinely set aside time for same-day appointments.
• A higher percentage of elderly than child patients visited practices where the electronic health record/electronic medical record system sent guideline-based intervention or screening test reminders.

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