Compare Doctors' Offices

What is being measured?

The cost index measures the price of services and the number and type of services that a patient uses. These services can be received at a primary care doctor’s office, or another location like a hospital or specialist office. Primary care doctors’ offices provide their patients with basic and preventive care, and often manage referrals to other services. This measure includes all the services a patient gets across settings to show how primary care doctors are managing costs associated with their patients.

For this score – what is meant by Lower than Average Cost, Average Cost, and Higher than Average Cost?

This score shows whether a doctor’s patients are getting care that is:

• Lower than Average Cost – cost is below the state average
• Average Cost – cost is equivalent to the state average
• Higher than Average Cost – cost is above the state average

What is being measured?

We calculate the scores for “Quality Composite Index” for each doctor’s office by measuring and combining two components: the quality of preventive care and chronic illness services the doctor provides, and  how often their patients use the emergency department or are hospitalized when it could have been avoided.

For this score – what is meant by better, average or below?

This score shows whether doctor’s offices are providing care that is:

• Better – quality is above the average of doctors’ offices in the state
• Average – quality scored close to the middle of doctors’ offices in the state
• Below – quality is below average of doctors’ offices in the state