Data on Health and Medicine Described by Researchers at East Carolina University (Lack of Health Insurance Coverage and Emergency Medical Service Transport for Pediatric Trauma Patients): Health and Medicine

2022 AUG 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Health and Medicine. According to news reporting originating in Greenville, North Carolina, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Pediatric trauma patients who lack insurance coverage may have less access to transport other than emergency medical services (EMS) or face financial barriers that prevent utilization of these services. We analyzed the association between health insurance coverage and EMS transport while controlling for injury and patient characteristics.”

Financial support for this research came from American College of Surgeons.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from East Carolina University, “De-identified Trauma Quality Programs registry data were queried for pediatric trauma patients age <18 y. The primary outcome was arrival by EMS (excluding interfacility transfer) versus private transport or walk-in, and the primary exposure was insurance coverage (any versus none). After exact matching on injury and facility characteristics, propensity matching was used to balance demographic covariates and comorbidities between insured and uninsured patients. Of the 130,246 patients analyzed, 9501 (7%) did not have insurance coverage. After matching 9494 uninsured cases to 9494 insured controls, fixed-effects logistic regression found that uninsured patients had 18% greater odds of using EMS transport, compared to insured patients (odds ratio: 1.18; 95% confidence interval: 1.11, 1.26; P< 0.001). Results were similar when comparing uninsured patients to privately insured or publicly insured patients only. Uninsured pediatric trauma patients have a higher likelihood of using EMS transport compared to insured patients with similar demographic and clinical characteristics, including the exact same score of injury severity.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Lack of access to private transport may drive higher EMS utilization in uninsured patients with minor injuries and contribute to higher costs of pediatric trauma care borne by institutions and families.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Lack of Health Insurance Coverage and Emergency Medical Service Transport for Pediatric Trauma Patients. Journal of Surgical Research, 2022;276:136-142. Journal of Surgical Research can be contacted at: Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science, 525 B St, Ste 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of Surgical Research - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-surgical-research/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Heerali Patel, East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine, 600 Moye Blvd, Greenville, NC 27834, United States. Additional authors for this research include Dmitry Tumin, Matthew Ledoux, Erika Greene and Shannon Longshore.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2022.02.010. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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