Tricia Rosetti,
Content Marketer | March 17, 2020
A new blog post from Deft Research looks at
the link between non-medical circumstances and the use of the emergency room
for non-emergency and routine medical care.
The research firm recently shared a new article as further analysis to better
understand the level of "convenience ER use" when patients use the
emergency room for non-emergency and routine medical care. It follows
a study from United Health Group, which
estimated that about two-thirds of all 2018 ER claims under the insurer’s
employer-sponsored coverage were avoidable and could have been treated at an
urgent care setting or primary care office for less than 10 percent of the
cost. “We wanted to create an estimate that accounted for legitimate false
alarms, something the UHC analysis did not do, write Steve Runfeldt, senior
researcher, and Richard Hamer, chief strategy officer, in a blog post. “Unless we expect the patient
to be the diagnostician, it seems reasonable for some proportion of ER visits
to turn out to be legitimate false alarms.”
They also emphasized that the term convenience
was used to convey the easiest, most efficient, and least frustrating
alternative. No negative connotation was intended or implied, they said.
About the research
Deft surveyed 3,424 consumers aged 19-64 who
were either uninsured or covered by Medicaid or individual-family plans (under
the Affordable Care Act).
In order to differentiate whether patients
used the ER for a legitimate concern or convenience, the survey asked two
questions:
1.
Have you experienced
severe personal injury or illness in the past 12 months?
2.
In the past year, how
many times have you visited the ER?
3. Using responses to these questions, analysts
determined that respondents who visited the ER just once in the absence of
severe injury or illness, may have had a “false alarm” (legitimate emergency
concerns but a non-emergency outcome). But the “convenience ER users” were
routinely using the ER for non-emergency purposes.
·
The survey determined:
Legitimate ER users reported serious medical conditions like heart disease,
cancer, and problems with limbs at significantly higher rates than those who
used the ER for convenience.
·
Convenience ER users’
rates of illness were similar to persons who did not use the ER at all.
Convenience ER users only represented 9
percent of the study’s sample, but it’s estimated they account for 45 percent
of ER visits.
Scarcity of items play a large role in
convenience ER use
The post also closely examined those who were
determined to be convenience ER users. Although it’s known people on Medicaid
and the uninsured have lower incomes and are more likely to use ERs, the data
did not support the idea that lower income leads to convenience ER use.
Instead, the results confirmed that scarcity
of items such as food, clothing, and utilities are the most distinguishing
social factors associated with convenience ER users, who were much more likely
to report that they or their families had been unable to get at least one
needed item at some point in the last year.
The analysis emphasized that a lack of social
support when needed can lead to non-emergency use of the ER, regardless of
household income.
Providing childcare, transportation, and safe
shelter for victims of abuse could help reduce the amount of convenience ER
users and lower the excess health care costs that come from the non-emergency
use of emergency rooms, Runfeldt and Hamer write.
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