Wm. Tierney et al., Restricting Medicaid payments for transportation: Effects on inner-city patients' health care, AM J MED SC, 319(5), 2000, pp. 326-333
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Background: Prior approval programs have been used to control spiraling cos
ts of Medicaid, but they are rarely formally assessed. We evaluated the eff
ect of a change in Indiana Medicaid's policy (effective October 1, 1993) re
quiring prior approval to pay transportation costs. Methods: We performed a
historical cohort study comparing the health care utilization of Medicaid
patients during the first 6 months of 1993 versus the first 6 months of 199
4. Subjects included all Medicaid patients who visited any inpatient or out
patient site affiliated with an inner-city public hospital in the first 6 m
onths of 1993 (N = 23,015) and 1994 (N = 23,707). Results: These Medicaid p
atients made 82,961 visits in the first 6 months of 1993 and 79,809 visits
in the first 6 months of 1994. Visits to hospital-based primary care clinic
s declined 16% (P < 0.001), which was partially offset by a 7% increase in
visits to neighborhood health centers (P less than or equal to 0.001). Emer
gency and urgent visits fell by 8%; visits for medication refills fell by 1
8% (P < 0.001 for each). Hospitalizations increased slightly in 1994, with
no change in the number of inpatient days. There was no change in inpatient
or outpatient nontransportation charges. There were no systematic reductio
ns in selected aspects of preventive care. However, there were fewer emerge
ncy and urgent visits among patients with reactive airway disease. Conclusi
ons: Requiring prior approval for transportation was associated with reduct
ions in visits for primary care visits and refilling prescriptions without
measurable shortterm effects on charges or selected clinical parameters. Ne
ighborhood health centers partially ameliorated the decline in primary care
visits.