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Use Of A Preferred Provider Plan By Employees Of The City Of Seattle, Paula Diehr

Paula Diehr

Little is known about the use of services in a preferred provider organization (PPO). We studied a preferred provider arrangement between Pacific Medical Center and employees of the City of Seattle. In the second 12 months of this program 8,529 subjects submitted at least one claim; of these, only 420 (4.9%) ever used the preferred provider. Those who used the PPO at least once differed significantly from those who never used it on age, sex, employee/dependent status, and utilization in the previous year. Outpatient and total charges were higher for PPO users than for nonusers before and after control for …