Emergency Departments Overcrowded By Many Patients With Health Insurance

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 04 Jun 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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The fastest growing group of people using emergency departments is middle-income patients with health insurance, rather than uninsured patients, Baltimore Sun reports.

According to a recent study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, uninsured patients accounted for 15.5% of ED visits in 1996-1997 and 14.5% of visits in 2003-2004. During the same time periods, the percentage of ED visits by higher-income patients increased from 21.9% to 29%, and the percentage of ED visits by those who obtain care in physician offices in most cases increased from 52.4% to 59%, the study found.

As a result, experts maintain that the "underlying assumption" in the national health care debate that an expansion of health insurance to more U.S. residents would result in decreased use of EDs "turns out to be ... false," according to the Sun.

Patients seek care in EDs for a number of reasons, but a "main one seems to be convenience" -- EDs remain open "24 hours a day, 365 days a year" and do not require appointments, according to the Sun. In addition, "everything from blood work to X-rays to treatment can be done in a compact amount of time under one roof," the Sun reports. Primary care physicians have become "increasingly reliant" on EDs to treat "overflow" patients and those who require tests not available in their offices, according to the Sun (Desmon, Baltimore Sun, 6/1).

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