Emergency room visits have increased in Massachusetts hospitals by about 4.1 percent between 2006 and 2008, according to an Annals of Emergency Medicine study.
This data comes out after the passage of the state's 2006 healthcare law, which mandated that most Massachusetts residents obtain some type of state-government-regulated health insurance coverage. However, "low severity" ER visits dropped by about 1.8 percent among poor or uninsured patients.
Peter Smulowitz, MD, and lead author of the study, said in a Boston Globe report that despite the results, access to health insurance is only one of many factors that affect ER visits. Common wisdom holds that as healthcare access expands, as occurs with universal coverage, ER visits should decline.
Dr. Smulowitz said that patients may go to an ER over a primary care physician for numerous reasons, including patients' perceptions of their own conditions as well as the unavailability of primary care physicians during off hours and short notice.
Related Articles on ER visits:
80% of ED Physicians Report Increase in Patient Visits
Payors Work With Hospitals to Improve Emergency Departments
State Regulators Find Deficiencies at Two UCSD ERs
This data comes out after the passage of the state's 2006 healthcare law, which mandated that most Massachusetts residents obtain some type of state-government-regulated health insurance coverage. However, "low severity" ER visits dropped by about 1.8 percent among poor or uninsured patients.
Peter Smulowitz, MD, and lead author of the study, said in a Boston Globe report that despite the results, access to health insurance is only one of many factors that affect ER visits. Common wisdom holds that as healthcare access expands, as occurs with universal coverage, ER visits should decline.
Dr. Smulowitz said that patients may go to an ER over a primary care physician for numerous reasons, including patients' perceptions of their own conditions as well as the unavailability of primary care physicians during off hours and short notice.
Related Articles on ER visits:
80% of ED Physicians Report Increase in Patient Visits
Payors Work With Hospitals to Improve Emergency Departments
State Regulators Find Deficiencies at Two UCSD ERs