Massachusetts health reform and disparities in joint replacement use: difference in differences study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To estimate the impact of the insurance expansion in 2006 on use of knee and hip replacement procedures by race/ethnicity, area income, and the use of hospitals that predominantly serve poor people ("safety net hospitals").

Design

Quasi-experimental difference in differences study examining change after reform in the share of procedures performed in safety net hospitals by race/ethnicity and area income, with adjustment for patients' residence, demographics, and comorbidity.

Setting

State of Massachusetts, United States.

Participants

Massachusetts residents aged 40-64 as the target beneficiaries of reform and similarly aged residents of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania as the comparison (control) population.

Main outcomes measures

Number

SUBMITTER: Hanchate AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4353277 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature