Use of intensive care services and associated hospital mortality after Massachusetts healthcare reform*.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To use the natural experiment of health insurance reform in Massachusetts to study the impact of increased insurance coverage on ICU utilization and mortality.

Design

Population-based cohort study.

Setting

Massachusetts and four states (New York, Washington, Nebraska, and North Carolina) that did not enact reform.

Patients

All nonpregnant nonelderly adults (age 18-64 yr) admitted to nonfederal acute care hospitals in one of the five states of interest were eligible, excluding patients who were not residents of a respective state at the time of admission.

Measurements

We used a difference-in-differences approach to compare trends in ICU admissions and outcomes of in-hospital mortality and discharge destination for ICU patients.

Main result

SUBMITTER: Lyon SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4845959 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature