Defining Primary Care Service Areas
Describes methods developed for defining primary care service areas using nationwide claims data to reflect actual utilization patterns for primary care clinical services, and the associated data sets for characterizing PCSAs. This description is based on ZIP Codes; the same process was applied when PCSAs were redefined using ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) in Version 2.1.

Assignment of ZIP Codes to PCSAs
Demonstrates the process of assigning ZIP codes to PCSAs based on patients' travel to primary care providers (V1). The same process was applied when PCSAs were redefined using ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) in Version 2.1.

Comparison with Medicaid Defined Primary Care Service Areas
A reasonable concern about using Medicare data to define PCSAs is that the areas may not accurately describe geographic markets of primary care for younger populations. The paper discusses the applicability of PCSAs to non-Medicare populations.

PCSA Data Dictionary

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