Health Care Home: Early Evidence from Linked Administrative Data in New Zealand

Abstract

Abstract Our analysis presents a case study on the impacts of Health Care Home (HCH) – a large-scale technology-based healthcare innovation in New Zealand’s primary healthcare system. For our analysis, we link the registered population of health practices within the Wellington region to administrative hospital admission data for quarterly periods between 2014 and 2017. By employing variation in the timing of HCH implementation across practices (selected via propensity score matching), we estimate differences-in-differences models to investigate the effects of the intervention on multiple patient outcomes. Additionally, we incorporate a number of empirical specifications to test the robustness of estimates. HCH results in a statistically significant reduction in the likelihood of emergency department (ED) presentations by 6–8 %, with no significant impacts on other health outcomes. The impact on ED presentations aligns with the expectation that the HCH intervention would produce downstream effects of a reduced economic burden on public hospital services.