A study whose findings were recently published has provided insights into the cost of treating injuries resulting from firearms, with a key finding being that Medicaid was billed for a little more than half of the total amount of money spent on these injuries during the period covered by the study.
The study, which was conducted by a joint team from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University in Illinois, focused on the initial treatment that individuals received when they visited a hospital after sustaining firearm injuries.
For their study, the researchers obtained data on inpatient and emergency department visits in the years 2016 to 2021. This information was obtained from hospital records, and the team focused on six states, namely, Arkansas, Maryland, Florida, New York, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. These choices weren’t random; rather, the decision to choose them was based on the fact that they are known for collecting data of very high quality on emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations.
The researchers obtained data on only the first visit that each patient made to a medical care facility for a firearm injury. The patterns the team observed were then based upon to generate estimates for what is happening at the national level.
The team went further to categorize their data based on factors like hospital size, patient demographics, health insurance cover, and other such factors.
The data revealed a number of key findings. In the study period, hospitals in the U.S. incurred costs amounting to $7.7bn to provide initial treatment for firearm-induced injuries. In the years 2016-2019, the cost of providing this treatment was stable, standing at $1.2bn each year. 2021 saw the cost spiking to $1.6bn. The researchers posit that this spike in 2021 was due to the increase in gun-related incidents during the lockdowns due to the pandemic.
In terms of how these costs were being met, the researchers found that Medicaid accounted for 52% of the hospital costs; 20% was paid for by private insurance; uninsured or self-paying patients met 16% of the costs; and Medicare was billed for 6% of the total hospital costs.
The study team noted that their estimates of the annual costs of treating firearm injuries are likely to be just a small fragment of the total cost because they only focused on the first visit that a patient makes after sustaining a firearm-linked injury. Other costs related to subsequent hospital visits, rehabilitation, ambulance or air transport and other such costs could raise the total significantly.
The researchers also noted that Medicaid covered more than half the total costs. This is a concern because hospitals accepting this coverage are often those in low-income areas that are populated by vulnerable groups. These hospitals operate on thin margins, and having to handle the largest portion of firearm injuries could push many to the brink of collapse since reimbursements for Medicaid are usually lower than the actual costs incurred to offer treatment.
As more safety-net hospitals increasingly find it hard to offer emergency treatment due to cost constraints, vulnerable people like racial minorities may have to rest their hopes on coverage provided by firms like Astiva Health that focus on serving underserved communities.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Astiva Health are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/Astiva
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