Discharge against medical advice from hospitalizations for substance use disorders: The potential impact of the Affordable Care Act.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To explore whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enactment is associated with changes in the proportion of discharge against medical advice (DAMA) among hospitalizations due to substance use disorders (SUDs).

Methods

Data were drawn from the 2012-2015 National Inpatient Samples. The sample comprised hospitalizations with a principal diagnosis of SUD (i.e., SUD-involved hospitalization) for patients aged 18-64 years (unweighted N = 287,629). Interrupted time series analyses were conducted to evaluate the effect of the ACA on monthly proportions of DAMA among SUD-involved hospitalizations.

Results

Overall, approximately 11% of SUD-involved hospitalizations were DAMA. DAMA was most frequently found among hospitalizations for primary opioid use disorder (pre-AC

SUBMITTER: Zhu H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6508559 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature