Primary care practice-based care management for chronically ill patients (PraCMan) in German healthcare: Outcome of a propensity-score matched cohort study

BACKGROUND: Growing prevalence of chronic diseases is a rising challenge for healthcare systems. The Primary Care Practice-Based Care Management (PraCMan) programme is a comprehensive disease management intervention in primary care in Germany aiming to improve medical care and to reduce potentially avoidable hospitalisations for chronically ill patients. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the effect of PraCMan on hospitalisation rate and related costs. METHODS: A retrospective propensity-score matched cohort study was performed. Reimbursement data related to patients treated in general practices between 1st July 2013 and 31st December 2017 were supplied by a statutory health insurance company (AOK Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany) to compare hospitalisation rate and direct healthcare costs between patients participating in the PraCMan intervention and propensity-score matched controls following usual care. Outcomes were determined for the one-year-periods before and 12 months after beginning of participation in the intervention. RESULTS: In total, 6148 patients participated in the PraCMan intervention during the observation period and were compared to a propensity-score matched control group of 6148 patients from a pool of 63,446 eligible patients. In the one-year period after the intervention, the per-patient hospitalisation rate was 8.3% lower in the intervention group compared to control (p = 0.0004). Per-patient hospitalisation costs were 9.4% lower in favour of the intervention group (p = 0.0002). CONCLUSION: This study showed that the PraCMan intervention may be associated with a lower rate of hospital admissions and hospitalisation costs than usual care. Further studies may assess long-term effects of PraCMan and its efficacy in preventing known complications of chronic diseases.