US primary care delivery after the Health Center Growth Initiative: comparison of health centers, hospital outpatient departments, and physicians' offices.

We compared patient management during primary care visits in 3 settings (health centers, hospital outpatient departments, and physicians' offices) and investigated racial/ethnic and insurance-based disparities in the wake of the recent health center program expansion. Within health centers, there were few differences in patient management across racial/ethnic or insurance groups. In contrast, the other settings displayed more racial/ethnic and insurance disparities in patient management during visits. Health centers performed processes of care with comparable or higher occurrence, relative to physicians' offices. Health care disparities were also attenuated in health centers, compared with other primary care settings.