Recent Studies from Boston Children’s Hospital Add New Data to Pediatrics (Trends in Pediatric Emergency Department Use After the Affordable Care Act)

Health Policy and Law Daily

2019 AUG 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Pediatrics. According to news originating from Boston, United States, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “In this cross-sectional, retrospective ITS analysis, we found that pediatric ED visits did not fall after the 2014 implementation of the ACA. After the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took full effect in 2014, 900000 children obtained health insurance.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Boston Children’s Hospital, “Researchers have found variable effects of insurance on adult emergency department (ED) use, but the effect in pediatric patients is unknown. We examined ED visit rates before and after 2014 among children. We used estimates of ED visit counts from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample and population estimates from the American Community Survey in a cross-sectional, retrospective study of ED visit rates among children. We compared the trend in ED visit rates before (2009-2013) and after (2014-2016) the ACA took full effect, controlling for age, sex, and census region. The mean ED use rate was 35.2 visits per 100 children from 2009 to 2013 and 36.6 from 2014 to 2016. ED visit rates increased by 1.1% per year pre-2014 and 9.8% from 2014 to 2016 (incidence rate ratio 1.09, 95% confidence interval 1.03-1.15, P = .005). Results did not vary significantly when insurance was included as a control variable. There was no immediate change in pediatric ED visit rates the year after the ACA took full effect in 2014, but the rate of change from 2014 to 2016 was significantly higher than previous rate trends.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “In our model, increased pediatric insurance coverage neither drove nor counteracted the observed trends.”

For more information on this research see: Trends in Pediatric Emergency Department Use After the Affordable Care Act. Pediatrics, 2019;143(6):e20183542. Pediatrics can be contacted at: Amer Acad Pediatrics, 141 North-West Point Blvd, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007-1098, USA.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from M. Lee, Children’s Hospital, Division of Emergency of Medicine, 300 Longwood Ave, Bch 3066, Boston, MA 02115, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-3542. 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.