Following Uninsured Patients Through Medicaid Expansion: Ambulatory Care Use and Diagnosed Conditions

Authors

Nathalie Huguet, Oregon Health & Science UniversityFollow
Steele Valenzuela, Oregon Health & Science University
Miguel Marino, OHSU-PSU School of Public HealthFollow
Heather Angier, Oregon Health & Science UniversityFollow
Brigit Hatch, OCHIN IncFollow
Megan Hoopes, OCHIN IncFollow
Jennifer E. DeVoe, Oregon Health & Science UniversitFollow

Published In

Annals of Family Medicine

Document Type

Citation

Publication Date

8-1-2019

Abstract

PURPOSE The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has improved access to health insurance, yet millions remain uninsured. Many patients who remain uninsured access care at community health centers (CHCs); however, little is known about their health conditions and health care use. We assessed ambulatory care use and diagnosed health conditions among a cohort of CHC patients uninsured before enactment of the ACA (pre-ACA: January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013) and followed them after enactment (post-ACA: January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015).

METHODS This retrospective cohort analysis used electronic health record data from CHCs in 11 US states that expanded Medicaid eligibility. We assessed ambulatory care visits and documented health conditions among a cohort of 138,246 patients (aged 19 to 64 years) who were uninsured pre-ACA and either remained uninsured, gained Medicaid, gained other health insurance, or did not have a visit post-ACA. We estimated adjusted predicted probabilities of ambulatory care use using an ordinal logistic mixed-effects regression model.

RESULTS Post-ACA, 20.9% of patients remained uninsured, 15.0% gained Medicaid, 12.4% gained other insurance, and 51.7% did not have a visit. The majority of patients had ≥1 diagnosed health condition. The adjusted proportion of patients with high use (≥6 visits over 2 years) increased from pre-ACA to post-ACA among those who gained Medicaid (pre-ACA: 23%, post-ACA: 34%, P

CONCLUSIONS A significant percentage of CHC patients remained uninsured; many who remained uninsured had diagnosed health conditions, and one-half continued to have ≥3 visits to CHCs. CHCs continue to be essential providers for uninsured patients.

Description

© 2019 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

Locate the Document

10.1370/afm.2385

DOI

10.1370/afm.2385

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/29237

Citation Details

Huguet, N., Valenzuela, S., Marino, M., Angier, H., Hatch, B., Hoopes, M., & DeVoe, J. E. (2019). Following Uninsured Patients Through Medicaid Expansion: Ambulatory Care Use and Diagnosed Conditions. Annals of Family Medicine, 17(4), 336–344.