Emergency Department Charges for Asthma-related Outpatient Visits by Insurance Status

Overview

Journal J Health Care Poor Underserved

Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press

Date 2014 Feb 11

PMID 24509034

Citations 11

Authors

Tiffany Wang

Tanja Srebotnjak

Julia Brownell

Renee Y Hsia

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Though Americans make 1.8 million asthma-related outpatient visits to the emergency department (ED) annually, little is known about the episodic charges for asthma care in the ED. We therefore sought to assess the bills patients could face for acute asthma incidents by examining hospital charges for asthma-related outpatient ED visits. We performed a nationwide, cross-sectional study of 2.9 million weighted asthma-related outpatient ED visits from 2006-2008 using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We found that the average charge for an outpatient ED visit was $1,502 (95% CI $1,493-$1,511). The charges did not vary significantly by insurance group but did increase significantly with age. Our results indicate that the financial burden of ED care for asthma may take a severe toll on low-income populations who have limited ability to pay, especially patients who must pay undiscounted charges, including the uninsured and those on high-deductible health plans.

Citing Articles

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