Auditing Access to Outpatient Rehabilitation Services for Children With Traumatic Brain Injury and Public Insurance in Washington State.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To identify insurance-based disparities in access to outpatient pediatric neurorehabilitation services.

Design

Audit study with paired calls, where callers posed as a mother seeking services for a simulated child with history of severe traumatic brain injury and public or private insurance.

Setting

Outpatient rehabilitation clinics.

Participants

Sample of rehabilitation clinics (N=287): 195 physical therapy (PT) clinics, 109 occupational therapy (OT) clinics, 102 speech therapy (ST) clinics, and 11 rehabilitation medicine clinics.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main outcome measures

Acceptance of public insurance and the number of business days until the next available appointment.

Results

Therapy clinics were more likely to accept

SUBMITTER: Fuentes MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5522775 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature