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BACKGROUND: E-health services may improve the quality and efficiency of care; however, there is little quantitative data on e-health use. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine trends in e-health use and user characteristics. RESEARCH DESIGN: This was a longitudinal study of e-health use (1999-2002) within an integrated delivery system (IDS). We classified 4 e-health services into transactional (drug refills and appointment scheduling) and care-related (medical and medication advice) services. SUBJECTS: Approximately 3.3 million members of a large, prepaid IDS. MEASUREMENTS: Amount and frequency of e-health use over time and characteristics of users. RESULTS: The number of members registered for access to e-health increased from 20,617 (0.7% of all members) in Q1 1999 to 270,987 (8.6%) in Q3 2002. Between Q1 and Q3 2002, 42,845 members (1.3%) used the drug refill service and 55,901 (1.7%) used the appointment scheduling service compared with 10,756 members (0.3%) who used the medical advice service and 3069 (0.1%) who used the medication advice service. Over the same period, transactional service users averaged 3.5 uses/user versus 1.6 uses/user among care-related service users. Members most likely to use e-health services had a high level of clinical need, a regular primary care provider, were 30 to 64 years old, female, white, and lived in a nonlow socioeconomic status neighborhood. These findings were consistent across e-health service types. CONCLUSIONS: Although use of all e-health services grew rapidly, use of care-related services lagged significantly behind use of transactional services. Subjects with greater clinical need and better ties to the health system were more likely to use both types of e-health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients are increasingly paying for more of their medical care through cost-sharing, yet little is known about how patients change the ways that they seek care in response.Objective: We sought to assess how patients change their care-seeking behavior in response to emergency department (ED) copayments.Research Design: Telephone interviews with a stratified random sample of adult members of a large integrated delivery system.Subjects: There were 932 respondents (72% response rate).Measures: We examined participants' knowledge of their copayment level for ED services, and measures of how the cost-sharing affected their decisions about where or when to seek care.Results: Overall, 82% of participants faced a copayment for ED services (ranging between 5 US dollars and 100 US dollars), and 41% correctly reported the amount of this copayment. In response to the perceived copayment amount, 19% reported changing their care-seeking behavior within the previous 12 months: 12% sought care from an alternate delivery site, 12% contacted a provider by telephone or the Internet, 9% delayed going to the ED, and 2% avoided medical care altogether. In multivariate models, the ED cost-sharing amount was significantly associated with reporting changes in care-seeking behavior.Conclusions: When faced with an ED copayment, patients in the health system most commonly shifted toward seeking care from other available alternatives, and rarely avoid medical care altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of cost-sharing to control healthcare expenditures is increasing, but there is scant information about patients' knowledge of cost-sharing or its influence on behavior.Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate what patients know about their individual levels of cost-sharing and how it influences decisions to seek care.Study Design: We conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey with a 69% response rate.Subjects: We studied a stratified random sample of 695 adult patients in an integrated delivery system: 266 subjects > or =65 years, 218 low-income subjects, and 211 subjects from the overall membership.Measures: We used perceived and actual levels of copayments for emergency department (ED) visits, office visits, and prescription drugs; and self-reports of copayment-related behavior changes.Results: One third of subjects correctly reported their ED copayment, whereas three fourths correctly reported their prescription drug and office visit copayments. Over half of the subjects (57%) underestimated their ED copayment by $20 or more. Among patients who reported having any copayment, 11% described changing their behavior because of the copayment, ie, delayed or avoided emergency care. The perceived copayment level was strongly associated with behavior change (odds ratio, 3.9). Other significant factors included having more ED visits in the past 12 months and having a low health status.Conclusions: Patients have less knowledge of their ED cost-sharing levels than for other services. The perceived copayment amount was strongly associated with avoidance of or delays in emergency care. Further research is needed to determine whether these responses reflect greater efficiency or harmful decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Medicare Part D provides formulary protections for antipsychotics but does not exempt these drugs from cost-sharing. We investigated the impact of Part D coverage on antipsychotic drug spending, adherence, and clinical outcomes among beneficiaries with varying indications for use., Methods: We conducted a historical cohort study of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who received antipsychotic drugs, with diagnoses of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or with no mental health diagnoses (N=10,190). Half had a coverage gap; half had no gap because of low-income subsidies. Using fixed effects regression models, we examined changes in spending and adherence as beneficiaries experienced cost-sharing increases after reaching the gap. We examined changes in hospitalizations and emergency department visits using proportional hazard models., Results: Across all diagnostic groups, total monthly expenditure on antipsychotic drugs decreased with cost-sharing increases in the gap compared with those with no gap (eg, schizophrenia: -$123 95% confidence interval [-$138, -$108]), and out-of-pocket spending increased (eg, schizophrenia: $104 [$98, $110]). Adherence similarly decreased, with the largest declines among those with schizophrenia (-20.6 percentage points [-22.3, -18.9] in proportion of days covered). Among beneficiaries with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, hospitalizations and emergency department visit rates increased with cost-sharing increases (eg, schizophrenia: hazard ratio=1.32 [1.06, 1.65] for all hospitalizations), but did not among subjects without mental health diagnoses. Clinical event rates did not change among beneficiaries with low-income subsidies without gaps., Conclusions: There is evidence of interruptions in antipsychotic use attributable to Part D cost-sharing. Adverse events increased among beneficiaries with approved indications for use, but not among beneficiaries without such indications.

The objective of this study was to determine whether a hypertension management program in which patients monitor their own blood pressure (BP) at home can reduce costs without compromising BP control. The prospective, randomized, controlled 1-year clinical trial was conducted at four medical centers of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of 467 patients with uncomplicated hypertension who were referred by their physicians, 37 declined to participate in the study; 215 were randomly assigned to a Usual Care (UC) group and 215 to a Home BP group. Twenty-five UC patients and 15 Home BP patients did not return for year-end BP measurements. Patients in the UC group were referred back to their physicians. Patients in the Home BP group were trained to measure their own BP and return the readings by mail. Patients were given a standard procedure to follow in case of unusually high or low BP readings at home. The number and type of outpatient medical services used were obtained from patient medical records for the study year and the prior year. Costs of care for hypertension were calculated by assigning relative value units to each outpatient service. Trained technicians measured each patient's BP at entry into the study and 1 year later. Home BP patients made 1.2 fewer hypertension-related office visits than UC patients during the study year (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.8, 1.7). Mean adjusted cost for physician visits, telephone calls, and laboratory tests associated with hypertension care was $88.76 per patient per year in the Home BP group, 29% less than in the UC group (95% CI: $16.11, $54.74). The annualized cost of implementing the home BP system was approximately $28 per patient during the study year and would currently be approximately $15. After 1 year, BP control in men in the Home BP group was better than in men in the UC group; BP control was equally good in women in both groups. Management of uncomplicated hypertension based on periodic home BP reports can achieve BP control with fewer physician visits, resulting in substantial cost savings.