Use of medical care for chronic conditions.

We used nationally representative data from the National Center for Health Statistics to compare 1995-96 and 2005-06 ambulatory care visit and 1996 and 2006 hospital discharge rates for adults for eight major chronic conditions. For the eight conditions combined, ambulatory care visit rates rose 21 percent, while hospital discharge rates fell 9 percent. Discharge rates fell for heart disease, cancer, and cerebrovascular disease. Ambulatory care visit rates rose at least 30 percent for arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, and depression. Medicaid recipients and black adults obtain more of their ambulatory care in hospital emergency and outpatient departments and less in physician offices than others do.