Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Reports Findings in Managed Care (Racial Inequities in Palliative Referral for Children with High-Intensity Neurologic Impairment): Managed Care

2024 FEB 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Managed Care is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Cincinnati, Ohio, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “To evaluate whether racial and socioeconomic inequities in pediatric palliative care utilization extend to children with high-intensity neurologic impairment (HI-NI), which is a chronic neurological diagnosis resulting in substantial functional morbidity and mortality. We conducted a retrospective study of patients with HI-NI who received primary care services at a tertiary care center from 2014 through 2019.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, “HI-NI diagnoses that warranted a palliative care referral were identified by consensus of a multidisciplinary team. The outcome was referral to palliative care. The primary exposure was race, categorized as Black or non-Black to represent the impact of anti-Black racism. Additional exposures included ethnicity (Hispanic/non-Hispanic) and insurance status (Medicaid/non-Medicaid). Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, and multivariable logistic regression models were performed to assess associations between exposures and palliative care referral. A total of 801 patients with HI-NI were included; 7.5% received a palliative referral. There were no differences in gestational age, sex, or ethnicity between patients who received a referral and those who did not. In multivariable analysis, adjusting for ethnicity, sex, gestational age, and presence of complex chronic conditions, Black children (aOR 0.47, 95% CI 0.26, 0.84) and children with Medicaid insurance (aOR 0.40, 95% CI 0.23, 0.70) each had significantly lower odds of palliative referral compared with their non-Black and non-Medicaid-insured peers, respectively. We identified inequities in pediatric palliative care referral among children with HI-NI by race and insurance status.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Future work is needed to develop interventions, with families, aimed at promoting more equitable, antiracist systems of palliative care.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Racial Inequities in Palliative Referral for Children with High-Intensity Neurologic Impairment. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2024:113930. The Journal of Pediatrics can be contacted at: Mosby-elsevier, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Margaret N. Jones, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Division of General and Community Pediatrics, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Additional authors for this research include Samantha L. Simpson, Andrew F. Beck, DonnaMaria E. Cortezzo, Rachel Thienprayoon, Alexandra M. S. Corley and Joanna Thomson.

Publisher contact information for the The Journal of Pediatrics is: Mosby-elsevier, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.

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