Abstract
BACKGROUND: Primary care (PC) is essential to overall wellness and management of comorbidities. In turn, patients without adequate access to PC may face healthcare disparities. We sought to characterize the impact of established PC on postoperative outcomes among patients undergoing a surgical procedure for a digestive tract cancer. METHODS: Medicare beneficiaries with a diagnosis of hepatobiliary, pancreas, and colorectal cancer between 2005 and 2019 were identified within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program and Medicare-linked database. Individuals who did versus did not have PC encounters within 1-year before surgery were identified. A postoperative textbook outcome (TO) was defined as the absence of complications, no prolonged hospital stay, no readmission within 90 days, and no mortality. RESULTS: Among 63,177 patients, 50,974 (80.7%) had at least one established PC visit before surgery. Patients with established PC were more likely to achieve TO (odds ratio [OR], 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-1.19) with lower odds for complications (OR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.72-0.89), extended hospital stay (OR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.81-0.94), 90-day readmission (OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.90-0.99), and 90-day mortality (OR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.79-0.96). In addition, patients with established PC had a 4.1% decrease in index costs and a 5.2% decrease in 1-year costs. Notably, patients who had one to five visits with their PC in the year before surgery had improved odds of TO (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.16-1.27), whereas individuals with more than 10 visits had lower odds of a postoperative TO (OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.84-0.98). CONCLUSION: Most Medicare beneficiaries with digestive tract cancer had established PC within the year before their surgery. Established PC was associated with a higher probability of achieving ideal outcomes and lower costs. In contrast, patients with more than 10 PC appointments, which was likely a surrogate of overall comorbidity burden, experienced no improvement in postoperative outcomes.