CHIA: Medicaid and Medicare cover most Mass. emergency department visits
Photo | Grant Welker
MetroWest Medical Center's Framingham Union Hospital
The Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis on Thursday released the first statewide emergency department report, revealing trends in emergency department use among Massachusetts acute care hospitals.
In 2019, there were more than 3.1 million emergency department visits statewide, according to the report.
Medicaid and Medicare were the most common expected payer types, with 60% of emergency department visits covered by the two payer types.
More than 32% of treat-and-release visits lasted more than four hours, according to the report. A visit of this length was twice as common among individuals with behavioral health primary diagnoses.
Visits with behavioral health primary diagnoses were also twice as common among Medicaid patients as among Medicare and commercially insured patients.
The report gathered information from all acute care hospitals in Massachusetts over a four-year period from 2016 to 2019.
“This report establishes an important baseline to allow government agencies, health care providers, payers, and researchers a better understanding of emergency department utilization in Massachusetts,” said Ray Campbell, executive director of the Center for Health Information and Analysis, in a statement. “CHIA will continue to monitor this critical component of the healthcare system as the needs of the residents in the Commonwealth continue to evolve.”
Going forward, CHIA plans to produce regular reports on inpatient, outpatient observation, and emergency department visits, it said in its Thursday announcement.
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