TREATMENT CHARGES, PAYMENT SOURCES, AND DISABILITY FROM ALCOHOL-RELATED TRAUMA

We examined treatment charges and who paid them and disability for wor k, school, household activities, and activities of daily living accord ing to identified use of alcohol before injury among 2,416 patients ag e 15 years or older from 22 northwestern Vermont communities, Over 90% received emergency department treatment only, Among patients reported to have consumed this drug mean hospital and physician charges, respe ctively, were $2,482 and $565; 31.7% did not pay any portion of their hospital bills, and 27.8% of their total bills were unpaid, Among pati ents not known to have consumed alcohol, mean hospital and physician c harges were $601 and $158, reb respectively; 10.7% made no payments an d 11.3% of their bills were unpaid, Bills of alcohol users more often were paid by Medicaid and less often by Workmen's Compensation or comm ercial insurance than were those of patients without alcohol Users als o were less likely than the nonalcohol group to pay physicians' bills for hospital care, Alcohol users experienced longer postinjury disabil ity than did persons not known to have been drinking.