Investigators from University of Pennsylvania Have Reported New Data on Managed Care (Emergency Medicaid Enrollment After Traumatic Injury Predicts Long-term Health Care Utilization): Managed Care

2025 MAR 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting originating from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Injured patients have high rates of uninsurance, which is associated with worse outcomes. Insurance linkage programs that connect patients to Medicaid coverage can prevent catastrophic costs for patients.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pennsylvania, “Less is known about the long-term impact of insurance enrollment. We examined health care utilization for previously uninsured patients, hypothesizing that newly insured patients postinjury would use health care more than those remaining uninsured. We linked institutional trauma registry data to the electronic medical record to identify injured patients aged 18 to 64 years from 2017 to 2021. Patients admitted without insurance and then retroactively insured (RI) during hospitalization were compared with patients with preestablished Medicaid (Medicaid insured [MI]) and those remaining uninsured. We compared demographic and injury characteristics and future health care utilization, including hospitalizations, emergency department (ED) visits, and clinic visits, among groups at 30 days and 12 months postinjury. reported outcomes (PROs) 6 months after injury were compared by group for a subset of patients participating in an ongoing study of long-term PROs. We compared 494 RI patients with 1,706 MI and 148 uninsured patients. Retroactively insured patients were younger, more likely to have penetrating injuries, and longer hospitalization than other groups. There was a significant increase in ED and clinic visits and hospital admissions at 30 days and 12 months between RI and uninsured patients (p < 0.001). Using multivariable logistic regression, RI was associated with higher future ED utilization, hospital admissions, and specialist visits at 30 days and 12 months compared with uninsured patients. Of the 265 patients with 6-month PROs, Medicaid coverage was not associated with any significant difference in physical function or anxiety. Patients enrolled in insurance postinjury are more likely to use health care in the future than patients without insurance, but the downstream effects are less clear.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Health insurance is a necessary step but not independently sufficient to optimize care and improve health outcomes.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Emergency Medicaid Enrollment After Traumatic Injury Predicts Long-term Health Care Utilization. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 2025;98(3):460-467. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery - http://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/pages/default.aspx)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Elinore J. Kaufman, University of Pennsylvania, Division of Trauma, Surg Crit Care & Emergency Surg, 51 N39TH St, Mob Ste 120, Philadelphia, PA 19106, United States. Additional authors for this research include Diane N. Haddad, Justin S. Hatchimonji, Deacon J. Lile, Mark J. Seamon, Niels D. Martin, Patrick M. Reilly, Ella Eisinger, Angela T. Chen, Omar I. Ramadan, Anna U. Morgan, M. Kit Delgado and Lisa M. Knowlton.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/ta.0000000000004403. 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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