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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of people with a usual primary care provider — AHS‑07 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  Medical Expenditure Panel (MEPS), AHRQ

Baseline: 76.0 percent of persons had a usual primary care provider in 2017

Target: 84.0 percent

Numerator
Number of persons who report that they have a usual primary care provider.
Denominator
Number of persons.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.20.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were evaluated for this objective but it was not possible to project a target because the trend was moving away from the desired direction. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.2. This method was used because over the past 20 years, the percent of persons with a usual primary care provider fluctuated between 75 percent and 79 percent, but moved in a generally downward direction. Given those trends and the importance of this objective as a Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicator, the Healthy People 2030 Workgroup Subject Matter Experts viewed this as an ambitious yet achievable target.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)
Numerator:
Is there a particular doctor's office, health center, or other place that [PERSON] usually goes if [PERSON] is sick or needs advice about [PERSON's] health?
  1. Yes
  2. No
  3. More than one place
  4. Refused
  5. Don't know
Is [PROVIDER] the {person/place} they would go for new health problems?
  1. Yes
  2. No
Is [PROVIDER] the {person/place} they would go for preventive health care, such as general check-ups, examinations, and immunizations?
  1. Yes
  2. No
Is [PROVIDER] the {person/place} they would go for referrals to other health professionals when needed?
  1. Yes
  2. No

Methodology notes

Persons were considered to have a usual primary care provider if they responded "yes" to all four of the Numerator questions.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.

1. Effect size h=0.2 was chosen to correspond with 20% improvement from a baseline of 50%.