Comparing the Cost of Caring for Medicare Beneficiaries in Federally Funded Health Centers to Other Care Settings.

<bold>Objective: </bold>To compare total annual costs for Medicare beneficiaries receiving primary care in federally funded health centers (HCs) to Medicare beneficiaries in physician offices and outpatient clinics.<bold>Data Sources/study Settings: </bold>Part A and B fee-for-service Medicare claims from 14 geographically diverse states. The sample was restricted to beneficiaries residing within primary care service areas (PCSAs) with at least one HC.<bold>Study Design: </bold>We modeled separately total annual costs, annual primary care costs, and annual nonprimary care costs as a function of patient characteristics and PCSA fixed effects.<bold>Data Collection: </bold>Data were obtained from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.<bold>Principal Findings: </bold>Total median annual costs (at $2,370) for HC Medicare patients were lower by 10 percent compared to patients in physician offices ($2,667) and by 30 percent compared to patients in outpatient clinics ($3,580). This was due to lower nonprimary care costs in HCs, despite higher primary care costs.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>HCs may offer lower total cost practice style to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare. Future research should examine whether these lower costs reflect better management by HC practitioners or more limited access to specialty care by HC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]