New Findings from Case Western Reserve University in Health and Society Provides New Insights (Health Care Use And Spending Patterns Vary By Wage…

New Findings from Case Western Reserve University in Health and Society Provides New Insights (Health Care Use And Spending Patterns Vary By Wage Level In Employer-Sponsored Plans)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Week -- Current study results on Health and Medicine - Health and Society have been published. According to news reporting out of Cleveland, Ohio, by NewsRx editors, research stated, "Employees face an increasing financial burden for health services as health care costs increase relative to earnings. Yet little is known about health care utilization patterns relative to employee wages."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Case Western Reserve University, "To better understand this association and the resulting implications, we examined patterns of health care use and spending by wage category during 2014 among 42,936 employees of four self-insured employers enrolled in a private health insurance exchange. When demographics and other characteristics were controlled for, employees in the lowest-wage group had half the usage of preventive care (19 percent versus 38 percent), nearly twice the hospital admission rate (31 individuals per 1,000 versus 17 per 1,000), more than four times the rate of avoidable admissions (4.3 individuals per 1,000 versus 0.9 per 1,000), and more than three times the rate of emergency department visits (370 individuals per 1,000 versus 120 per 1,000) relative to top-wage-group earners. Annual total health care spending per patient was highest in both the lowest-wage ($4,835) and highest-wage ($5,074) categories relative to the middle two wage groups ($3,952 and $3,987, respectively). These findings provide new insights about wage-associated variations in health care use and spending in employer-sponsored plans."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "For policy makers, these findings can inform employer benefit design strategies and research priorities, to encourage effective use of health care services."

For more information on this research see: Health Care Use And Spending Patterns Vary By Wage Level In Employer-Sponsored Plans. Health Affairs, 2017;36(2):250-257. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA (see also Health and Medicine - Health and Society).

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting B.W. Sherman, Case Western Reserve University, Sch Med, Med, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States. Additional authors for this research include T.B. Gibson, W.D. Lynch and C. Addy.

Keywords for this news article include: Cleveland, Ohio, United States, North and Central America, Health and Society, Health and Medicine, Case Western Reserve University.

Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2017, NewsRx LLC