Primary Care Use Among Commercially Insured Adolescents: Evidence From the 2018 Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set

Abstract

Improving the utilization of preventive care among adolescents is important for achieving individual-level and population-level health goals. The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set reports data submitted by managed care health plans, capturing a large number of individuals in the U.S. Using Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set from 2018, mean performance levels were calculated for 5 preventive care measures among adolescents. Differences in performance between states that use Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set or Health Plan Accreditation and those that use neither were estimated. Analysis was conducted in January-July 2020. The sample included data from 39 states, with 32 that use Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set or Health Plan Accreditation and 7 that do not. Adolescent vaccination coverage was 28% for the complete human papillomavirus series, 81% for meningococcal, and 88% for tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis. Access to a primary care practitioner (a 2-year measure) was 91%, and well-care visits (a 1-year measure) were 50%. When compared with states that do not use Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set or Health Plan Accreditation, the mean performance of states that used either Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set or Health Plan Accreditation was statistically significantly higher for 4 of the 5 assessed measures. Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures can help public health officials to monitor progress toward health goals, such as Healthy People 2020, and identify poorly performing health plans and types of preventive services in greatest need of improvement. States using Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set or Health Plan Accreditation were associated with better performance in some adolescent measures, which suggests that health plan accountability may have a role in achieving health outcomes and could be an important area for future research.