Post Affordable Care Act Evaluation (PACE)

Post Affordable Care Act: Evaluation of Community Health Centers

This innovative study will measure the impact of Affordable Care Act-sponsored Medicaid expansions on access to and utilization of community health center (CHC) services. Building on the investigators prior work that developed a robust community-based research infrastructure within the OCHIN community health information network, the investigator will utilize linked electronic health record data from the OCHIN network of >400 CHC clinics in 8 states that expanded Medicaid coverage and 8 states that did not expand.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Chronic Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Medicaid Expansion

Detailed Description

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) called for every state in the United States (US) to expand Medicaid coverage to individuals at ≤138% of the federal poverty level by 2014. In a 2012 legal challenge, the Supreme Court ruled that states were not required to implement the ACA-sponsored Medicaid expansion; thus (by December 31, 2014), only 27 states and the District of Columbia expanded Medicaid, while 23 states did not. Little is known about the impact of ACA-sponsored Medicaid expansions on access to and changes in receipt of healthcare services among vulnerable populations. Yet this knowledge is essential to informing deliberations in 'non-expansion' states regarding whether to expand their Medicaid programs, and will also be helpful to 'expansion' states eager to learn about the impact of their expansions. The natural experiment created by the Supreme Court decision to make expansion optional for states provides a unique opportunity to assess the extent to which Medicaid expansions improve access to healthcare for low-income patients and other vulnerable populations. The proposed project will be one of the first to examine changes in access to and receipt of healthcare services and to Medicaid expenditures following ACA Medicaid expansions among a large population of safety net clinic patients. The investigators will use electronic health record data (EHR) from the OCHIN practice-based research network, which serves >1 million patients in 442 community health centers (CHCs) in 8 expansion states and 8 non-expansion states. Moreover, using CHC data from the 8 expansion-states, the investigators will examine differences in utilization among patients gaining new Medicaid coverage (newly insured), as compared to those already insured by Medicaid (already insured), and those who remain uninsured (uninsured). Finally, the investigators will link EHR data from the 213 OCHIN clinics in Oregon to Medicaid administrative claims data to assess overall healthcare utilization (including care received outside of CHCs, such as hospitalization) and to compare Medicaid expenditures among newly insured individuals versus those already insured. The investigators will address the following specific aims: Aim 1: compare pre-post health insurance status, primary care, mental health, and dental visits, and receipt of preventive services, as well as changes in payer mix among OCHIN CHCs in states that did and did not expand Medicaid; Aim 2: Examine pre-post utilization of CHC services (including receipt of preventive services) by newly insured patients compared to already insured patients and uninsured patients; and, Aim 3: Measure pre-post Medicaid expansion changes in overall utilization of healthcare services and costs to the Oregon Medicaid program among newly insured compared to already insured. The findings from this project will be extremely relevant to policy and practice, informing further improvements in the US healthcare system to ensure access to healthcare for vulnerable populations.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 1939848

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Oregon
    • Portland, Oregon, United States, 97239
      • Oregon Health and Science University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 20 years to 64 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Study eligible patients within electronic health record data from the OCHIN community health information network

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients in intervention and control states aged 20-64

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients outside of age range 20-64

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Medicaid Expansion States; Patients receiving care in community health centers in states that expanded Medicaid (intervention group)	Other: Medicaid Expansion; There will be no direct intervention, but rather an observation of change based on whether a state expanded Medicaid or not
Non Medicaid Expansion States; Patients receiving care in community health centers in states that did not expand Medicaid (control group)	Other: Medicaid Expansion; There will be no direct intervention, but rather an observation of change based on whether a state expanded Medicaid or not

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Health Insurance Status	Health insurance status derived from EHR data and is primarily based on information collected at each visit	24 months prior to Medicaid expansion vs 24 months post

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Healthcare service utilization	Number and type of internal services utilized	24 months prior to Medicaid expansion vs 24 months post
Preventive Service utilization	Number and type of preventive services received	24 months prior to Medicaid expansion vs 24 months post
Medicaid Expenditures	We will calculate the average pre-post expansion difference in total Medicaid expenditures. We will attach an expenditure for each service based on its average Medicaid Fee-For-Service reimbursement in the first year for those who were insured or uninsured pre or post expansion	24 months prior to Medicaid expansion vs 24 months post

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Oregon Health and Science University
• Collaborators: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ); OCHIN, Inc.
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jennifer E DeVoe, MD, Oregon Health and Science University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Marino M, Angier H, Valenzuela S, Hoopes M, Killerby M, Blackburn B, Huguet N, Heintzman J, Hatch B, O'Malley JP, DeVoe JE. Medicaid coverage accuracy in electronic health records. Prev Med Rep. 2018 Jul 27;11:297-304. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.07.009. eCollection 2018 Sep.
• Hoopes MJ, Angier H, Gold R, Bailey SR, Huguet N, Marino M, DeVoe JE. Utilization of Community Health Centers in Medicaid Expansion and Nonexpansion States, 2013-2014. J Ambul Care Manage. 2016 Oct-Dec;39(4):290-8. doi: 10.1097/JAC.0000000000000123.
• Springer R, Marino M, O'Malley JP, Lindner S, Huguet N, DeVoe JE. Oregon Medicaid Expenditures After the 2014 Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion: Over-time Differences Among New, Returning, and Continuously Insured Enrollees. Med Care. 2018 May;56(5):394-402. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000000907.
• Angier, H., C. J. Tillotson, L. S. Wallace, M. Marino, J. P. O' Malley, A. Sumic, L. Baker, C. Nelson, N. Huguet, A. Suchocki, H. Holderness and J. E. DeVoe (2018).
• Angier H, Hoopes M, Marino M, Huguet N, Jacobs EA, Heintzman J, Holderness H, Hood CM, DeVoe JE. Uninsured Primary Care Visit Disparities Under the Affordable Care Act. Ann Fam Med. 2017 Sep;15(5):434-442. doi: 10.1370/afm.2125.
• Huguet N, Hoopes MJ, Angier H, Marino M, Holderness H, DeVoe JE. Medicaid Expansion Produces Long-Term Impact on Insurance Coverage Rates in Community Health Centers. J Prim Care Community Health. 2017 Oct;8(4):206-212. doi: 10.1177/2150131917709403. Epub 2017 May 17.
• Heintzman J, Bailey SR, DeVoe J, Cowburn S, Kapka T, Duong TV, Marino M. In Low-Income Latino Patients, Post-Affordable Care Act Insurance Disparities May Be Reduced Even More than Broader National Estimates: Evidence from Oregon. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2017 Jun;4(3):329-336. doi: 10.1007/s40615-016-0232-1. Epub 2016 Apr 22.
• Hatch B, Marino M, Killerby M, Angier H, Hoopes M, Bailey SR, Heintzman J, O'Malley JP, DeVoe JE. Medicaid's Impact on Chronic Disease Biomarkers: A Cohort Study of Community Health Center Patients. J Gen Intern Med. 2017 Aug;32(8):940-947. doi: 10.1007/s11606-017-4051-9. Epub 2017 Apr 3.
• Bailey SR, Hoopes MJ, Marino M, Heintzman J, O'Malley JP, Hatch B, Angier H, Fortmann SP, DeVoe JE. Effect of Gaining Insurance Coverage on Smoking Cessation in Community Health Centers: A Cohort Study. J Gen Intern Med. 2016 Oct;31(10):1198-205. doi: 10.1007/s11606-016-3781-4. Epub 2016 Jun 21.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 24, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): October 24, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 13, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 14, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): January 15, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 19, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 14, 2019
• Last Verified: March 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: healthcare access; preventive services; utilization; expenditures
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Disease Attributes; Chronic Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: ARQHR01HS024270

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED