Fierce Health Payers November 5, 2019
States that expanded Medicaid in 2014 and 2015 had reductions in hospital discharges, inpatient days and costs, a new study finds.
The study published Monday in Health Affairs suggests the potential for the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion to lower costs and reduce preventable hospitalizations.
Researchers estimated that the Medicaid expansion led to a 3.47% reduction in annual discharge rates for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions that range from diabetes and heart failure to also infections or pneumonia. The estimated reductions in discharge rates were largely concentrated among respiratory and diabetes-related complications, the study added.
The expansion was also associated with a roughly 3% reduction in annual inpatient days for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions from 2014 to 2015.
The Health Affairs study aims...
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