Findings from Carolinas Medical Center in General Surgery Reported (The Association of the Affordable Care Act With Medicaid Enrollment Status and Costs of Care At a Level I Trauma Center In a Medicaid Non-expansion State)

2021 AUG 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Surgery - General Surgery. According to news reporting out of Charlotte, North Carolina, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The intended purpose of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to expand access to health care insurance for all Americans. In our study, we examine the association of Medicaid enrollment status, health care outcomes, and financial outcomes for trauma patients at a level I urban trauma center in a state that did not expand Medicaid coverage under the ACA.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Carolinas Medical Center, “We retrospectively reviewed trauma admissions from 2011 to 2016, via the trauma registry (n = 36,250). A subgroup of Medicaid patients (n = 8840) was identified and compared for changes in selected variables and demographics following ACA implementation. The association of Medicaid payor status, by 3 year average pre-ACA (n = 3516) and post-ACA (n = 3324), on patient outcomes, payments collected, and accrued costs of care were analyzed. Three-year Medicaid median actual payments decreased 7.5% following implementation of the ACA ($4072 vs. $3,767, P< .01). In contrast, the Medicaid median total cost of care increased 23% ($3964 vs. $4,882, P< .01). The rate of patients insured by Medicaid decreased (24.0% vs. 16.2%, P<.001). Patients were admitted longer (1 d vs. 2 d, P< .01), and more injured (ISS 5 vs. 6, P< .01). Medicaid payor status under the ACA was associated with a decrease in actual payments and an increase in total cost of care.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Moreover, the divergence in actual payments collected with the increased total cost of care warrants examination to ascertain the root cause in efforts to reduce this widening gap.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: The Association of the Affordable Care Act With Medicaid Enrollment Status and Costs of Care At a Level I Trauma Center In a Medicaid Non-expansion State. The American Surgeon, 2021:000313482110111. The American Surgeon can be contacted at: Sage Publications Inc, 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Kyle W. Cunningham, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC 28203, United States. Additional authors for this research include Michael R. Nahouraii, Ronald F. Sing, Kelly E. Sing and Ashley B. Christmas.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1177/00031348211011144. 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.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)