Methods

To describe the effects that payment models have on physician practices, this project employed qualitative methods, incorporating multiple case studies, with each of 34 physician practices constituting a case (Yin, 2014). Because the project sought to incorporate contextual information on market-level characteristics that might affect how practices respond to alternative payment models (e.g., the mix of competitors, health plans, and payment programs operating in the geographic area served by each practice), these 34 cases were nested within six geographically defined health care markets in the United States. We included a relatively large total number of cases because we sought to