Using diabetes as a case study, Miranda Moore, PhD, economist for the Robert Graham Center, and her colleagues measured the number of health conditions addressed by primary care physicians and compared them to the number addressed by subspecialty physicians to analyze how the visits varied by physician specialty type.
The researchers utilized Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data to create a nationally-representative sample of adults who self-report a diabetes diagnosis, the specialty of the physician treating them for their care and the number of diagnoses for each visit.
The study showed that nearly 80 percent of visits made by adults with diabetes to a subspecialist involved care for that single diagnosis, while 55 percent of visits to primary care physicians involved care for at least one additional diagnosis. Almost 70 percent of visits in which only one diagnosis was reported were to subspecialist physicians, while almost 90 percent of visits in which four diagnoses were reported were to primary care physicians.
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