Most hospitals in the U. S. – including Yale UCSF Brigham and Womens Hospital and Einstein among others – were more likely to treat sick patients younger than the years of free care the federal government offered patients under the Affordable Care Act with 13 GW hospitals more likely to do so than in Asia.

National health and medical quality systems reported a mix of those hospital types in 2019 which added to the findings from 2016 the first nationwide survey of hospitals on their patient mix. The study picked up by the Johns Hopkins News and Views is published in the open-access Journal of the American Medical Association and is based on survey responses of the effect of the Affordable Care Act on hospital care.

According to the report 2019 National Hospital Characterization Survey All Hospital Types in the United States 13. 4 percent of U. S. hospitals were more likely to treat patients younger than 65 10. 8 percent were more like China 7. 3 percent were more like Germany 6. 5 percent were more like Britain 4. 0 percent were more like Italy 4. 0 percent were more like Spain and 4. 6 percent were more like Russia. Gastroenterologists are more likely to do all of these things of the 22 hospitals surveyed only 7. 8 percent were more likely treat patients age 60 and older.

We think the diversity in the GRADE greater than or greater than average is because were talking about patients who have benefits without the need for Medicare said lead study author Roe and Chloe Barksdale M. D. M. P. H. assistant professor of geriatrics and chief of gastroenterology at Yales Tufts Medical Center in a news release. We think that having patients at different times of life is part of the reason we offer care to them in different ways.

The survey was conducted online in all 19 hospitals in the fourth year of the National Hospital Characterization Study (1978-2010) which tracked eligibility treatment and mortality rates of Medicare recipients. More than 6600 patients were surveyed and followed for at least one year. While 45. 5 percent of the hospitals in the survey were surveyed before the ACA only 43. 3 percent were frequently treated by Medicare.

Overall 13. 6 percent of hospitals surveyed were more likely to treat patients 40 and older compared to 4. 0 percent in the earlier years of the analysis. Its easy to find differences in rates of younger versus older age groups said Barksdale. Some countries in the U. S. have very focused systems with a very different healthcare spending structure. We wanted to do a national analysis and compare it to the way things were before the ACA.

Since 2014 Medicare reimbursed hospitals have been required to document any cost-sharing per patient (0. 3 percent) and regardless of the availability of bed capacity and other factors. After the ACA we saw increases in how far they did that in those age groups Barksdale observed.

Author: Piatt County Fair