DIFFERENCES IN HOSPITAL UTILIZATION FOR MEDICAID VERSUS PRIVATELY INSURED NEWBORNS: BASED ON 1991-1992 SOUTH CAROLINA STATEWIDE NEWBORN DATA.
Contributors: University of South Carolina.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 181
Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Data on 102,143 hospitalized newborns were analyzed to examine the neonatal illness distribution, as well as hospital utilization, by insurance status, race, and hospital characteristics. The second purpose of the study is to identify how insurance status affects hospital utilization, after adjusting for other factors, and thus, provide the basis for specifying policies to improve neonatal hospital resource allocation.

Among these newborns, in the 1991-1992 South Carolina birth cohort, Medicaid newborns were sicker than privately insured newborns. Black newborns were sicker than white newborns. When both insurance status and race are simultaneously taken into account, race has a stronger relationship than insurance status to birth outcome, but insurance status remains a significant predictor. To this extent, the distribution of hospital utilization reflects the interrelationships among insurance status, race, and birth outcome. On average, Medicaid newborns incurred more hospital utilization than privately insured newborns. Black newborns averaged more hospital utilization than white newborns. When both insurance status and race are taken into account, race is more strongly related to hospital utilization than insurance status.

Analysis by birth-weight category reveals that the average hospital charges of privately insured newborns are consistently higher than those of Medicaid newborns for each birth-weight category. Multiple regression analyses confirm descriptive findings that the average hospital charges of Medicaid newborns are consistently lower than those of privately insured newborns. However, after controlling for birth-weight, race, and hospital level, insurance status has a weak effect on hospital charges, while insurance status has a significant effect on length of stay.

This study, illustrating factors influencing neonatal hospital utilization, provides the South Carolina Medicaid program and other third party payers opportunities to understand how neonatal medical care is provided and ways in which it can be improved. It is also anticipated that this information will provide health executives with a new way to analyze their current cost data and to more reasonably project costs for the Medicaid population in the future.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: B, page: 2681.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1994.

School code: 0202.