Unwinding of Medicaid enrollment and increased uninsured emergency department visits in California.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To examine the association between post-pandemic era Medicaid eligibility redeterminations ("unwinding") and emergency department (ED) payer mix in California.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective secondary analysis of California's quarterly ED visit data (2021-2024) across 281 general acute-care hospitals, using interrupted time-series analysis.

Results

During unwinding, Medicaid ED visits declined by 0.37 percentage points (pp) and uninsured ED visits increased by 0.16 pp per quarter (P < .001) relative to the pre-unwinding period. The largest Medicaid declines occurred in investor-owned (0.87 pp, 11.9%) and medium-sized (0.47 pp, 7.4%) hospitals (P < .001). In contrast, the largest increases in uninsured visits occurred among hospitals in ru

SUBMITTER: Khodakarami N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12849369 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature