Measuring Care Continuity

Background: Assessing care continuity is important in evaluating the impact of health care reform and changes to health care delivery. Multiple measures of care continuity have been developed for use with claims data. Objective: This study examined whether alternative continuity measures provide distinct assessments of coordination within predefined episodes of care. Research Design and Subjects: This was a retrospective cohort study using 2008–2009 claims files for a national 5% sample of beneficiaries with congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes mellitus. Measures: Correlations among 4 measures of care continuity—the Bice-Boxerman Continuity of Care Index, Herfindahl Index, usual provider of care, and Sequential Continuity of Care Index—were derived at the provider- and practice-levels. Results: Across the 3 conditions, results on 4 claims-based care coordination measures were highly correlated at the provider-level (Pearson correlation coefficient r =0.87–0.98) and practice-level ( r =0.75–0.98). Correlation of the results was also high for the same measures between the provider- and practice-levels ( r =0.65–0.92). Conclusions: Claims-based care continuity measures are all highly correlated with one another within episodes of care

Continuity of care · Health care · Political science · Healthcare Policy and Management · Law

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  Open Access•Isabella Ratto, Neelam Ahmed et al.•The Journal of Rural Health•2026

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• Continuity of Care and Healthcare Costs among Patients with Chronic Disease

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• Association of Physician Referrals with Timely Cancer Care Using Tumor Registry and Claims Data

  Open Access•Melody K Schiaffino, James D Murphy et al.•Health Equity•2022

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• Exploring the Intensity and Continuity of Hospital Care for Patients With Long Covid

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• Ambulatory Care Fragmentation and Subsequent Hospitalization

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• Continuity of Care Versus Language Concordance as an Intervention to Reduce Hospital Readmissions From Home Health Care

  Allison Squires, Patrick Engel et al.•Medical Care•2023

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• Risk Selection and Care Fragmentation at Medicare Accountable Care Organizations for Patients With Dementia

  Kenton J Johnston, Travis Loux et al.•Medical Care•2023

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• Can Claims Data Algorithms Identify the Physician of Record

  Eva H DuGoff, Emily Walden et al.•Medical Care•2018

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• Patient-Physician Ethnic Concordance and its Impact on Care Continuity

  Open Access•Weizhuo Chen, Changli Jia et al.•Journal of Racial and Ethnic…•2026

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• Measuring Provider Continuity in Ambulatory Care

  Donald M Steinwachs•Medical Care•1979

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• A Quantitative Measure of Continuity of Care

  Thomas W Bice, Stuart B Boxerman•Medical Care•1977

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• Service Delivery Structure and Continuity of Care

  Naomi Breslau, Marie R Haug•Journal of Health and Social…•1976

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