Homeless populations account for a large portion of healthcare spending, but frequent use of hospital emergency rooms may not be the No. 1 reason why costs associated with homeless individuals are so high, reports Boston Herald.
That finding comes from Medicaid claims data assembled and studied by the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program.
The group found that for 1,1000 patients treated through the program in 2015, about 30 percent of Medicaid costs went to inpatient visits compared to 4 percent to ER visits. They also found top 10 percent of the highest ER super-users make an average of 26 ER visits annually. This indicates that lengthier inpatient stays may be the real driver behind homeless healthcare spending, Jessie Gaeta, MD, CMO of Boston's Healthcare for the Homeless program, told the Boston Herald.
Homeless patients necessitate lengthier hospital stays due to acute physical problems caused by living on the streets. Physicians have found that a person who has been homeless for a long period of time often has significant brain, lung, liver and kidney damage, according to Dr. Gaeta.