Insurance status and hospital care for myocardial infarction, stroke, and pneumonia.
BACKGROUND
Despite widely documented variations in health care outcomes by insurance status, few nationally representative studies have examined such disparities in the inpatient setting.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether there are insurance-related differences in hospital care for 3 common medical conditions.


METHODS
Retrospective database analysis of 154,381 adult discharges (age 18-64 years) with a principal diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, or pneumonia from the 2005 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS).


METHODS
For each diagnosis, we compared in-hospital mortality, length of stay (LOS), and cost per hospitalization for Medicaid and uninsured patients with the privately insured.


RESULTS
Compared with the privately insured, in-hospital mortality among AMI and stroke patients was significantly higher for the uninsured (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.24-1.85] for AMI and 1.49 [1.29-1.72] for stroke) and among pneumonia patients was significantly higher for Medicaid recipients (1.21 [1.01-1.45]). Excluding patients who died during hospitalization, LOS was consistently longer for Medicaid recipients for all 3 conditions (adjusted ratio 1.07, 95% CI [1.05-1.09] for AMI, 1.17 [1.14-1.20] for stroke, and 1.04 [1.03-1.06] for pneumonia), although costs were significantly higher for Medicaid recipients for only 2 of the 3 conditions (adjusted ratio 1.06, 95% CI [1.04-1.09] for stroke and 1.05 [1.04-1.07] for pneumonia).


CONCLUSIONS
In this nationally representative study of working-age Americans hospitalized for 3 common medical conditions, significantly lower in-hospital mortality was noted for privately insured patients compared with the uninsured or Medicaid recipients. Interventions to reduce insurance-related gaps in inpatient quality of care should be investigated.
Hasan
Omar
O
Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02120-1613, USA.
Orav
E John
EJ
Hicks
LeRoi S
LS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000191:economics; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000191:economics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult