DecisionHealth, DecisionHealth - 2012 Issue 3 (March)

Benchmark of the Week: Ratio of new to established patient visits

This graph presents ratios of new patient visits to established patient visits for 16 specialties – eight specialties with the largest ratios and eight with the smallest ratios. The data, based on a Part B News analysis of 2010 Medicare claims data, was generated by dividing the total service count for each specialty’s E/M visits coded as 99201-99205 by the specialty’s service count of claims coded with 99211-99215. A larger ratio signifies an overall office visit balance that skews heavily toward new patients, a ratio of exactly one would mean an equal amount of new and established visits and a ratio closer to zero means the specialty relies mostly on established patient visits. Specialties that rarely billed Medicare for office visits were excluded from consideration. 

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