Table 1.

Comparison of Characteristics between Low and High Low Value Care Spending Groups Among Primary Care

Characteristic	All		Low LVC Spending Group		High LVC Spending Group		p value
Characteristic	(SD)		(SD)		(SD)		p value
LVC spending per patient ($)	14.67	(9.72)	10.11	(4.90)	26.83	(8.86)	<.001
Total Medicare spending per patient ($)*	3,101	(1439.72)	2,877	(1375.63)	3,698	(1436.51)	<.001
PCP Characteristics
Age (mean)	51.0	(9.19)	50.9	(9.29)	51.2	(8.92)	.309
Allopath	0.88		0.89		0.86		.057
Female	0.27		0.29		0.23		<.001
Non-US Medical Graduate	0.22		0.21		0.26		<.01
Patient size	159	(142.00)	147	(130.54)	189	(164.94)	<.001
<50	0.22		0.23		0.18		<.01
50 to 149	0.37		0.38		0.33		<.01
150 to 299	0.28		0.28		0.30		.296
300+	0.13		0.11		0.19		<.001
Specialty
Internal Medicine	0.48		0.44		0.58		<.001
Family Medicine	0.49		0.52		0.39		<.001
Other Specialty	0.04		0.04		0.03		.086
Graduation Year
Pre-1980	0.25		0.25		0.25		.828
1980 to 1989	0.33		0.32		0.36		.081
1990 to 2000	0.36		0.36		0.35		.607
Post-2000	0.06		0.07		0.05		<.05
Practice Region
Northeast	0.19		0.18		0.22		<.01
Midwest	0.27		0.33		0.12		<.001
South	0.36		0.33		0.47		<.001
West	0.17		0.17		0.19		.193
Rural	0.16		0.20		0.06		<.001
Patient Panel Characteristics
Age (mean)	76.70	(2.59)	76.97	(2.74)	76.00	(1.97)
65 to 69	0.22		0.21		0.24		<.001
70 to 74	0.24		0.24		0.26		<.001
75 to 79	0.19		0.19		0.20		<.001
80 to 84	0.16		0.16		0.16		<.05
85+	0.19		0.20		0.15		<.001
Female	0.59		0.60		0.57		<.001
Race/Ethnicity
White	0.89		0.89		0.89		.361
Black	0.07		0.07		0.07		.949
Other	0.04		0.03		0.04		.082
ElixHauser Comorbidity Index
0	0.13		0.14		0.11		<.001
1 to 2	0.50		0.51		0.47		<.001
3 to 5	0.30		0.29		0.34		<.001
6+	0.07		0.06		0.08		<.001
Physician Practice Location Characteristics
<12 years schooling	0.12		0.12		0.12		.832
Black	0.11		0.11		0.12		.059
Hispanic	0.11		0.10		0.15		<.001
<200% FPL	0.33		0.33		0.31		<.001
Number of Observations	6,873		5,499		1,374

LVC, low value care; FPL, federal poverty line; PCP, primary care physician; SD, standard deviation.