Investigators from Oregon Health and Science University Zero in on Family Medicine (Prevalence of Pre-existing Conditions Among Community Health Center Patients Before and After the Affordable Care Act)

2019 DEC 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Health and Medicine - Family Medicine. According to news reporting originating in Portland, Oregon, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “To assess the prevalence of pre-existing conditions for community health center (CHC) patients who gained insurance coverage post-Affordable Care Act (ACA). We analyzed electronic health record data from 78,059 patients aged 19 to 64 uninsured at their last visit pre-ACA from 386 CHCs in 19 states.”

Funders for this research include Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Cancer Institute, National Health, Lung, and Blood Institute, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Oregon Health and Science University, “We compared the prevalence and types of pre-existing conditions pre-ACA (2012 to 2013) and post-ACA (2014 to 2015), by insurance status and race/ethnicity. Pre-ACA, >50% of patients in the cohort had >= 1 Pre-existing condition. Post-ACA, >70% of those who gained insurance coverage had >= 1 condition. Post-ACA, all racial/ethnic subgroups showed an increase in the number of pre-existing conditions, with non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients experiencing the largest increases (adjusted prevalence difference, 18.9; 95% CI, 18.2 to 19.6 and 18.3; 95% CI, 17.8 to 18.7, respectively). The most common conditions post-ACA were mental health disorders with the highest prevalence among patients who gained Medicaid (45.6%) and lowest among those who gained private coverage (30.5%). This study emphasizes the high prevalence of pre-existing conditions among CHC patients and the large increase in the proportion of patients with at least 1 of these diagnoses post-ACA.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Given how common these conditions are, repealing pre-existing condition protections could be extremely harmful to millions of patients and would likely exacerbate health care and health disparities.”

For more information on this research see: Prevalence of Pre-existing Conditions Among Community Health Center Patients Before and After the Affordable Care Act. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 2019;32(6):883-+. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine can be contacted at: Amer Board Family Medicine, 2228 Young Dr, Lexington, KY 40505, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting N. Huguet, Oregon Health and Science University, Dept. of Family Medicine, Portland, OR 97201, United States. Additional authors for this research include H. Angier, M. Marino, J. Heintzman, J.E. DeVoe, M.J. Hoopes and T. Schmidt.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.3122/jabfm.2019.06.190087. 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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