Researchers at Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center Release New Data on Internal Medicine (Association Between the ACA Medicaid Expansions and Primary Care and Emergency Department Use During the First 3 Years)

Health Policy and Law Daily

2020 MAR 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Fresh data on Health and Medicine - Internal Medicine are presented in a new report. According to news originating from Los Angeles, California, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Evidence is limited and mixed as to how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansions affected the utilization of primary care physicians (PCPs) and emergency departments (EDs) at the national level. To examine the association between the ACA Medicaid expansions and changes in the utilization of PCP and ED visits at the national level during the first 3 years (2014-2016) of the implementation.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, “A difference-in-differences analysis to compare outcomes between individuals in 32 states that expanded Medicaid versus individuals in 19 non-expansion states. A nationally representative sample of US-born individuals 26-64 years old with family incomes lower than 138% of the federal poverty level from the 2010-2016 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. ACA Medicaid expansions MAIN MEASURES: We examined PCP-related outcomes ((i) whether a participant had any PCP visit during a year and (ii) the annual number of PCP visits per person) and ED-related outcomes ((i) whether a participant had any ED visit during a year and (ii) the annual number of ED visits per person). A total of 17,803 participants were included in our analysis. We found that the proportion of individuals with any PCP visit during a year marginally increased (difference-in-differences estimate, + 3.6 percentage points [pp]; 95% CI, -0.4 pp to + 7.6 pp; p=0.08) following the Medicaid expansions, without any change in the annual number of PCP visits per person. We found no evidence that ED utilization (both the proportion of individuals with any ED visit during a year and the annual number of ED visits per person) changed meaningfully after the Medicaid expansions.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Using the nationally representative data of individuals who were affected by the ACA, we found that the ACA Medicaid expansions were associated with a modest improvement in access to PCPs without an increase in ED use.”

For more information on this research see: Association Between the ACA Medicaid Expansions and Primary Care and Emergency Department Use During the First 3 Years. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2019;35(3):711-718. Journal of General Internal Medicine can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Journal of General Internal Medicine - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1525-1497)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from H. Gotanda, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, United States. Additional authors for this research include G. Kominski and Y. Tsugawa.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05458-w. 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.