Freestanding Emergency Department Entry and Market-level Spending on Emergency Care.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Freestanding emergency departments (FrEDs) could reduce wait times in overcrowded emergency departments (EDs), but they might also increase usage and overall spending for emergency care. We investigate the relationship between the number of FrEDs entering a local market and overall spending on emergency care.

Methods

We accessed data from Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas in Blue Cross Blue Shield Axis; a limited data set of deidentified insurance data claims that we linked to Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) data from the American Community Survey; and lists of licensed FrEDs from state agencies. Regression analysis was used to estimate the association between changes in the number of FrEDs in 495 PUMAs and total spending on emergency care, out-of-pocke

SUBMITTER: Ho V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6899627 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature