Table 1. Prevalence of Practice Supports Among Usual Primary Care Physician Respondents Caring for the Study Sample of Patients With One or More of Four Chronic Conditions, 2008*
Practice SupportBeneficiaries Whose PCP Had the Practice Support (%)
PCP communication with patients and other specialists about specialist care received (% that said “Always” or “Most of the Time”)
    1. How often do you know about all visits that your patients make to other physicians?50.9
    2. When you refer a patient to a specialist, how often do you send the specialist notification of patient's history and reason for consultation?68.9
    3. How often do you receive useful information about your referred patients from specialists?66.5
    4. After your patient has seen a specialist, how often do you talk with the patient or family members about the results of the visits(s) with the specialist?61.8
Health information technology (extent of use)
    1. Physician's main practice uses an electronic health record
        Yes44.2
        No55.8
    2. Clinical information technology function is available in practice and used personally by respondent occasionally or routinely:
        a. To email patients14.9
        b. To provide reminders to clinicians of preventive services35.2
        c. To provide reminders to clinicians on follow-up32.3
        d. To generate reminders to patients about preventive services35.2
        e. To access patient notes, medication lists, or problem lists48.4
        f. To order lab or other diagnostic tests49.8
        g. To view test results73.5
        h. To access practice guidelines80.4
        i. For clinical decision support65.1
        j. To obtain information on formularies42.3
        k. To obtain information on potential drug interactions, allergies67.4
        l. To write prescriptions38.4
        m. To transmit prescriptions to pharmacy36.4
Nurse and patient educator care management (% yes)
    1. Nurse care managers monitor and coordinate the care of patients with:
        Asthma10.8
        Diabetes21.9
        Congestive heart failure15.7
    2. Nonphysician staff educate patients in managing that condition
        Asthma23.0
        Diabetes43.6
        Congestive heart failure21.4
Quality and performance measurement for your own patients (% yes)
    1. Receives reports on preventive care quality from practice/organization or health plan59.5
    2. Receives reports on quality of chronic care from practice/organization or health plan65.0
    3. How large of an effect do written practice guidelines have on your practice of medicine (% large or very large)29.0
    4. Participates in quality reporting programs sponsored by outside organizations like CMS25.8
Registry
    Receives reports or patient lists of your own patients from your practice or health plan registry (% yes)37.5

  • Data source: Medicare claims from years 2007 to 2009 and linked Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) nationally representative Physician Survey (2008).

  • ↵* Analytic sample is the 123,760 (unweighted frequency; weighted count, N = 1,359,053) Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with any one or more of 4 chronic conditions (asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure) whose usual primary care physician (PCP) was a respondent to the HSC nationally representative physician survey (2008).

  • CMS, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; PCP, primary care physician.