Disruptions in insurance coverage: patterns and relationship to health care access, unmet need, and utilization before enrollment in the State Children's Health Insurance Program

Child Opportunity Index and Pediatric Intensive Care Outcomes: A Multicenter Retrospective Study in the United States

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate for associations between a child's neighborhood, as categorized by Child Opportunity Index (COI 2.0), and 1) PICU mortality, 2) severity of illness at PICU admission, and 3) PICU length of stay (LOS).

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING

Fifteen PICUs in the United States.

PATIENTS

Children younger than 18 years admitted from 2019 to 2020, excluding those after cardiac procedures. Nationally-normed COI category (very low, low, moderate, high, very high) was determined for each admission by census tract, and clinical features were obtained from the Virtual Pediatric Systems LLC (Los Angeles, CA) data from each site.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Among 33,901 index PICU admissions during the time period, median patient age was 4.9 years and PICU mortality was 2.1%. There was a higher percentage of admissions from the very low COI category (27.3%) than other COI categories (17.2-19.5%, p < 0.0001). Patient admissions from the high and very high COI categories had a lower median Pediatric Index of Mortality 3 risk of mortality (0.70) than those from the very low, low, and moderate COI groups (0.71) ( p < 0.001). PICU mortality was lowest in the very high (1.7%) and high (1.9%) COI groups and highest in the moderate group (2.5%), followed by very low (2.3%) and low (2.2%) ( p = 0.001 across categories). Median PICU LOS was between 1.37 and 1.50 days in all COI categories. Multivariable regression revealed adjusted odds of PICU mortality of 1.30 (95% CI, 0.94-1.79; p = 0.11) for children from a very low versus very high COI neighborhood, with an odds ratio [OR] of 0.996 (95% CI, 0.993-1.00; p = 0.05) for mortality for COI as an ordinal value from 0 to 100. Children without insurance coverage had an OR for mortality of 3.58 (95% CI, 2.46-5.20; p < 0.0001) as compared with those with commercial insurance.

CONCLUSIONS

Children admitted to a cohort of U.S. PICUs were often from very low COI neighborhoods. Children from very high COI neighborhoods had the lowest risk of mortality and observed mortality; however, odds of mortality were not statistically different by COI category in a multivariable model. Children without insurance coverage had significantly higher odds of PICU mortality regardless of neighborhood.

Policy solutions to eliminate racial and ethnic child health disparities in the USA

Societal systems act individually and in combination to create and perpetuate structural racism through both policies and practices at the local, state, and federal levels, which, in turn, generate racial and ethnic health disparities. Both current and historical policy approaches across multiple sectors-including housing, employment, health insurance, immigration, and criminal legal-have the potential to affect child health equity. Such policies must be considered with a focus on structural racism to understand which have the potential to eliminate or at least attenuate disparities. Policy efforts that do not directly address structural racism will not achieve equity and instead worsen gaps and existing disparities in access and quality-thereby continuing to perpetuate a two-tier system dictated by racism. In Paper 2 of this Series, we build on Paper 1's summary of existing disparities in health-care delivery and highlight policies within multiple sectors that can be modified and supported to improve health equity, and, in so doing, improve the health of racially and ethnically minoritised children.

Consistency and Adequacy of Public and Commercial Health Insurance for US Children, 2016 to 2021

Importance

Before and during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), commercially and publicly insured children may have faced different challenges in obtaining consistent and adequate health insurance.

Objective

To compare overall rates, COVID-19 PHE-related changes, and child and family characteristics associated with inconsistent and inadequate coverage for publicly and commercially insured children.

Design, Settings, and Participants

This was a cross-sectional study using nationally representative data from the 2016 to 2021 National Survey of Children's Health of children from age 0 to 17 years living in noninstitutional settings.

Exposure

Parent- or caregiver-reported current child health insurance type defined as public or commercial.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Inconsistent insurance, defined as having an insurance gap in the past year; and inadequate insurance, defined by failure to meet 3 criteria: (1) benefits usually/always sufficient to meet child's needs; (2) coverage usually/always allows child to access needed health care practitioners; and (3) no or usually/always reasonable annual out-of-pocket payments for child's health care. Survey-weighted logistic regression was used to compare outcomes by insurance type, by year (2020-2021 vs 2016-2019), and by child characteristics within insurance type.

Results

Of this nationally representative sample of 203 691 insured children, 34.5% were publicly insured (mean [SD] age, 8.4 [4.1] years; 47.4% female) and 65.5% were commercially insured (mean [SD] age, 8.7 [5.6]; 49.1% female). Most publicly insured children were either non-Hispanic Black (20.9%) or Hispanic (36.4%); living with 2 married parents (38.4%) or a single parent (33.1%); and had a household income less than 200% of the federal poverty level (79%). Most commercially insured children were non-Hispanic White (62.8%), living with 2 married parents (79.0%); and had a household income of 400% of the federal poverty level or higher (49.1%). Compared with commercially insured children, publicly insured children had higher rates of inconsistent coverage (4.2% vs 1.4%; difference, 2.7 percentage points [pp]; 95% CI, 2.3 to 3.2) and lower rates of inadequate coverage (12.2% vs 33.0%; difference, -20.8 pp; 95% CI, -21.6 to -20.0). Compared with the period from 2016 to 2019, inconsistent insurance decreased by 42% for publicly insured children and inadequate insurance decreased by 6% for commercially insured children during the COVID-19 PHE (2020-2021). The child and family characteristics associated with inadequate and inconsistent insurance varied by insurance type.

Conclusions and Relevance

The findings of this cross-sectional study indicate that insurance gaps are a particular problem for publicly insured children, whereas insurance inadequacy and particularly, out-of-pocket costs are a challenge for commercially insured children. Both challenges improved during the COVID-19 PHE. Improving children's health coverage after the PHE will require policy solutions that target the unique needs of commercially and publicly insured children.

Insurance churn after adult traumatic injury: A national evaluation among a large private insurance database

BACKGROUND

Traumatic injury leads to significant disability, with injured patients often requiring substantial health care resources to return to work and baseline health. Temporary disability or inability to work can result in changes or loss of employer-based private insurance coverage, which may significantly impact health care access and outcomes. Among privately insured patients, we hypothesized increased instability in insurance coverage for patients with higher severity of injury.

METHODS

Adults 18 years and older presenting to a hospital with traumatic injury were evaluated for insurance churn using Clinformatics Data Mart private-payer claims. Insurance churn was defined as cessation of enrollment in the patient's private health insurance plan. Using Injury Severity Score (ISS), we compared insurance churn over the year following injury between patients with mild (ISS, <9), moderate (ISS, 9-15), severe (ISS, 16-24), and very severe (ISS, >24) injuries. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare time with insurance churn by ISS category. Flexible parametric regression was used to estimate hazard ratios for insurance churn.

RESULTS

Among 750,862 privately insured patients suffering from a traumatic injury, 50% experienced insurance churn within 1 year after injury. Compared with patients who remained on their insurance plan, patients who experienced insurance churn were younger and more likely male and non-White. The median time to insurance churn was 7.7 months for those with mild traumatic injury, 7.5 months for moderately or severely injured, and 7.1 months for the very severely injured. In multivariable analysis, increasing injury severity was associated with higher rates of insurance churn compared with mild injury, up to 14% increased risk for the very severely injured.

CONCLUSION

Increasing severity of traumatic injury is associated with higher levels of health coverage churn among the privately insured. Lack of continuous access to health services may prolong recovery and further aggravate the medical and social impact of significant traumatic injury.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Economic and Value Based Evaluations; Level III.

An observational study of health insured visits for children following Medicaid eligibility expansion for adults among a linked cohort of parents and children

Despite its focus on adults, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion led to increased health insurance enrollment for children in the United States. Previous studies looked at parent and child insurance changes separately, or used a single survey response item to understand changes in health insurance for parents and children. It is, however, important to understand the connection between parent and child insurance changes together (not individually) using data sources that account for insurance over time. Therefore, to understand the association of parental health insurance on their children's coverage, leveraging a cohort of linked families seen in community health centers (CHCs), we used electronic health records to link a cohort of parents and children with ≥1 visit to a CHC in a Medicaid expansion state pre- (1/1/2012-12/31/2013) and ≥1 visit post-ACA (1/1/2014-12/31/2018) and determined primary payer type for all visits. This observational, cohort study assessed the rate of insured visits for children pre- to post-ACA across four parental insurance groups (always insured, gained Medicaid, discontinuously insured, never insured) using Poisson mixed effects models. We included 335 CHCs across 7 United States. Insurance rates were highest (~95 insured visits/100 visits) for children of parents who were always insured; rates were lowest for children of parents who were never insured (~83 insured visits/100 visits). Children with a parent who gained Medicaid had 4.4% more insured visits post- compared to pre-ACA (adjusted relative rates  = 1.044, 95% confidence interval: 1.014, 1.074). When comparing changes from pre- to post-ACA between parent insurance groups, children's insured visit rates were significantly higher for children of parents who gained Medicaid (reference) compared to children of parents who were always insured (adjusted ratio of rate ratio: 0.963, confidence interval: 0.935-0.992). Despite differences in Medicaid eligibility for children and adults, health insurance patterns were similar for linked families seen in CHCs. Findings suggest consideration should be paid to parent health insurance options when trying to increase children's coverage.

Medicaid Expansion Improved Perinatal Insurance Continuity For Low-Income Women

Insurance churn, or moving between different insurance plans or between insurance and uninsurance, is common during the perinatal period. We used survey data from the 2012-17 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System to estimate the impact of Affordable Care Act-related state Medicaid expansions on continuity of insurance coverage for low-income women across three time points: preconception, delivery, and postpartum. We found that Medicaid expansion resulted in a 10.1-percentage-point decrease in churning between insurance and uninsurance, representing a 28 percent decrease from the prepolicy baseline in expansion states. This decrease was driven by a 5.8-percentage-point increase in the proportion of women who were continuously insured and a 4.2-percentage-point increase in churning between Medicaid and private insurance. Medicaid expansion improved insurance continuity in the perinatal period for low-income women, which may improve the quality of perinatal health care, but it also increased churning between public and private health insurance.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Perinatal Insurance Coverage

Gaps and transitions (disruptions) in perinatal insurance coverage disproportionately affect indigenous, Hispanic, and black non-Hispanic women.

To measure the association between race–ethnicity and insurance status at preconception, delivery, and postpartum and the frequency of insurance gaps and transitions (disruptions) across these time points.

Predictors of Behavioral Health Service Utilization in a Medicaid Enrolled Sample of Emerging Adults

Emerging adults (EA), individuals between the ages of 15-26, face many challenges in their transition to a new developmental stage, especially those with behavioral health concerns who do not receive the supports they need. Many EA drop out of services at 18, which is likely due in part to the need to transition to the adult service system and the lack of available transition support services in child/adolescent service systems. Though this is a clear disparity, research on EA service utilization, especially those enrolled in Medicaid and with co-occurring conditions, is rare. This paper begins to address this gap by examining variables at age 17 that predict the service utilization of continuously Medicaid enrolled EA at age 18. Data came from an administrative dataset. The sample had 4,548 EA and 53% were female, 50% identified with a minority group, and 19% were child-welfare involved. Exploratory logistic regression analyses were used. Minority EA had lower odds of utilizing services at age 18. EA involved with child welfare had greater odds of utilizing services at age 18. EA with at least one Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and at least one mental health disorder at 17 had a higher likelihood of service utilization at 18, the opposite was true for EA with only SUDs. These findings identified predictors of service utilization for an understudied sample-EA enrolled in Medicaid. Results provided preliminary evidence that EA with SUD diagnoses access behavioral health services differently than those without a SUD diagnosis, and that it is fruitful to examine subgroups of EA when seeking to understand their service utilization patterns. Identifying predictors of service utilization during the transition period from the child to the adult system can help inform systems interventions to retain EA in services.

Reducing toxic stress in the neonatal intensive care unit to improve infant outcomes

In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a technical report on the lifelong effects of early toxic stress on human development, and included a new framework for promoting pediatric health: the Ecobiodevelopmental Framework for Early Childhood Policies and Programs. We believe that hospitalization is a specific form of toxic stress for the neonatal patient, and that toxic stress must be addressed by the nursing profession in order to substantially improve outcomes for the critically ill neonate. Approximately 4% of normal birthweight newborns and 85% of low birthweight newborns are hospitalized each year in the highly technological neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Neonates are exposed to roughly 70 stressful procedures a day during hospitalization, which can permanently and negatively alter the infant's developing brain. Neurologic deficits can be partly attributed to the frequent, toxic, and cumulative exposure to stressors during NICU hospitalization. However, the AAP report does not provide specific action steps necessary to address toxic stress in the NICU and realize the new vision for pediatric health care outlined therein. Therefore, this paper applies the concepts and vision laid out in the AAP report to the care of the hospitalized neonate and provides action steps for true transformative change in neonatal intensive care. We review how the environment of the NICU is a significant source of toxic stress for hospitalized infants. We provide recommendations for caregiving practices that could significantly buffer the toxic stress experienced by hospitalized infants. We also identify areas of research inquiry that are needed to address gaps in nursing knowledge and to propel nursing science forward. Finally, we advocate for several public policies that are not fully addressed in the AAP technical report, but are vital to the health and development of all newborns.

Maternal and child patterns of Medicaid retention: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

We sought to determine whether maternal Medicaid retention influences child Medicaid retention because caregivers play a critical role in assuring children's health access.

METHODS

We conducted a longitudinal prospective cohort study of a convenience sample of 604 Medicaid-eligible mother-child dyads followed from the infant's birth through 24 months of age with parent surveys. Individual enrollment status was abstracted from administrative Medicaid eligibility files. Generalized estimating equations quantified the effect of maternal Medicaid enrollment status on child Medicaid retention, adjusting for relevant covariates. Because varying lengths of gaps may have different effects on child health outcomes, Medicaid enrollment status was further categorized by length of gap: any gap, > 14-days, and > 60-days.

RESULTS

This cohort consists primarily of African-American (94%), unmarried mothers (88%), with a mean age of 23.2 years. In multivariable analysis, children whose mothers experienced any gaps in coverage had 12.6 times greater odds of experiencing gaps when compared to children whose mothers were continuously enrolled. Use of varying thresholds to define coverage gaps resulted in similar odds ratios (> 14-day gap = 11.8, > 60-day gap = 16.8). Cash assistance receipt and maternal knowledge of differences between Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Medicaid eligibility criteria demonstrated strong protective effects against child Medicaid disenrollment.

CONCLUSIONS

Medicaid disenrollment remains a significant policy problem and maternal Medicaid retention patterns show strong effects on child Medicaid retention. Policymakers need to invest in effective outreach strategies, including family-friendly application processes, to reduce enrollment barriers so that all eligible families can take advantage of these coverage opportunities.

Electronic health record tools to assist with children's insurance coverage: a mixed methods study

Background

Children with health insurance have increased access to healthcare and receive higher quality care. However, despite recent initiatives expanding children’s coverage, many remain uninsured. New technologies present opportunities for helping clinics provide enrollment support for patients. We developed and tested electronic health record (EHR)-based tools to help clinics provide children’s insurance assistance.

Methods

We used mixed methods to understand tool adoption, and to assess impact of tool use on insurance coverage, healthcare utilization, and receipt of recommended care. We conducted intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses comparing pediatric patients in 4 intervention clinics (n = 15,024) to those at 4 matched control clinics (n = 12,227). We conducted effect-of-treatment-on-the-treated (ETOT) analyses comparing intervention clinic patients with tool use (n = 2240) to intervention clinic patients without tool use (n = 12,784).

Results

Tools were used for only 15% of eligible patients. Qualitative data indicated that tool adoption was limited by: (1) concurrent initiatives that duplicated the work associated with the tools, and (2) inability to obtain accurate insurance coverage data and end dates. The ITT analyses showed that intervention clinic patients had higher odds of gaining insurance coverage (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.32, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 1.14–1.51) and lower odds of losing coverage (aOR = 0.77, 95%CI 0.68–0.88), compared to control clinic patients. Similarly, ETOT findings showed that intervention clinic patients with tool use had higher odds of gaining insurance (aOR = 1.83, 95%CI 1.64–2.04) and lower odds of losing coverage (aOR = 0.70, 95%CI 0.53–0.91), compared to patients without tool use. The ETOT analyses also showed higher rates of receipt of return visits, well-child visits, and several immunizations among patients for whom the tools were used.

Conclusions

This pragmatic trial, the first to evaluate EHR-based insurance assistance tools, suggests that it is feasible to create and implement tools that help clinics provide insurance enrollment support to pediatric patients. While ITT findings were limited by low rates of tool use, ITT and ETOT findings suggest tool use was associated with better odds of gaining and keeping coverage. Further, ETOT findings suggest that use of such tools may positively impact healthcare utilization and quality of pediatric care.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02298361; retrospectively registered on November 5, 2014.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-3159-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Racial/ethnic differences in health insurance adequacy and consistency among children: Evidence from the 2011/12 National Survey of Children's Health

Background

Surveillance of disparities in healthcare insurance, services and quality of care among children are critical for properly serving the medical/healthcare needs of underserved populations. The purpose of this study was to assess racial/ethnic differences in children's (0 to 17 years old) health insurance adequacy and consistency (child has insurance coverage for the last 12 months).

Design and methods

We used data from the 2011/2012 National Survey of Children's Health (n=79,474). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the distribution and influence of several sociodemographic/family related factors on insurance adequacy and consistency across different racial/ethnic groups.

Results

Stratified analyses by race/ethnicity revealed that white and black children living in households at or below 299% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) were approximately 29 to 42% less likely to have adequate insurance compared to children living in families of higher income levels. Regardless of race/ethnicity, we found that children with public health insurance were more likely to have adequate insurance than their privately insured counterparts, while adolescents were at greater risk of inadequate coverage. Hispanic and black children were more likely to lack consistent insurance coverage.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence that racial/ethnic differences in adequate and consistent health insurance exists with both white and minority children being affected adversely by poverty. Establishing outreach programs for low income families, and cross-cultural education for healthcare providers may help increase health insurance adequacy and consistency within certain underserved populations.

Supply-side effects from public insurance expansions: Evidence from physician labor markets

Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) are key sources of coverage for U.S. children. Established in 1997, CHIP allocated $40 billion of federal funds across the first 10 years but continued support required reauthorization. After 2 failed attempts in Congress, CHIP was finally reauthorized and significantly expanded in 2009. Although much is known about the demand-side policy effects, much less is understood about the policy's impact on providers. In this paper, we leverage a unique physician dataset to examine if and how pediatricians responded to the expansion of the public insurance program. We find that newly trained pediatricians are 8 percentage points more likely to subspecialize and as much as 17 percentage points more likely to enter private practice after the law passed. There is also suggestive evidence of greater private practice growth in more rural locations. The sharp supply-side changes that we observe indicate that expanding public insurance can have important spillover effects on provider training and practice choices.

Healthcare Utilization After a Children's Health Insurance Program Expansion in Oregon

OBJECTIVE

The future of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is uncertain after 2017. Survey-based research shows positive associations between CHIP expansions and children's healthcare utilization. To build on this prior work, we used electronic health record (EHR) data to assess temporal patterns of healthcare utilization after Oregon's 2009-2010 CHIP expansion. We hypothesized increased post-expansion utilization among children who gained public insurance.

METHODS

Using EHR data from 154 Oregon community health centers, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of pediatric patients (2-18 years old) who gained public insurance coverage during the Oregon expansion (n = 3054), compared to those who were continuously publicly insured (n = 10,946) or continuously uninsured (n = 10,307) during the 2-year study period. We compared pre-post rates of primary care visits, well-child visits, and dental visits within- and between-groups. We also conducted longitudinal analysis of monthly visit rates, comparing the three insurance groups.

RESULTS

After Oregon's 2009-2010 CHIP expansions, newly insured patients' utilization rates were more than double their pre-expansion rates [adjusted rate ratios (95 % confidence intervals); increases ranged from 2.10 (1.94-2.26) for primary care visits to 2.77 (2.56-2.99) for dental visits]. Utilization among the newly insured spiked shortly after coverage began, then leveled off, but remained higher than the uninsured group.

CONCLUSIONS

This study used EHR data to confirm that CHIP expansions are associated with increased utilization of essential pediatric primary and preventive care. These findings are timely to pending policy decisions that could impact children's access to public health insurance in the United States.

Housing Instability and Children's Health Insurance Gaps

OBJECTIVE

To assess the extent to which housing instability is associated with gaps in health insurance coverage of preschool-age children.

METHODS

Secondary analysis of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, a nationally representative study of children born in the United States in 2001, was conducted to investigate associations between unstable housing-homelessness, multiple moves, or living with others and not paying rent-and children's subsequent health insurance gaps. Logistic regression was used to adjust for potentially confounding factors.

RESULTS

Ten percent of children were unstably housed at age 2, and 11% had a gap in health insurance between ages 2 and 4. Unstably housed children were more likely to have gaps in insurance compared to stably housed children (16% vs 10%). Controlling for potentially confounding factors, the odds of a child insurance gap were significantly higher in unstably housed families than in stably housed families (adjusted odds ratio 1.27; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.61). The association was similar in alternative model specifications.

CONCLUSIONS

In a US nationally representative birth cohort, children who were unstably housed at age 2 were at higher risk, compared to their stably housed counterparts, of experiencing health insurance gaps between ages 2 and 4 years. The findings from this study suggest that policy efforts to delink health insurance renewal processes from mailing addresses, and potentially routine screenings for housing instability as well as referrals to appropriate resources by pediatricians, would help unstably housed children maintain health insurance.

Perceived Discrimination Associated With Asthma and Related Outcomes in Minority Youth: The GALA II and SAGE II Studies

BACKGROUND

Asthma disproportionately affects minority populations and is associated with psychosocial stress such as racial/ethnic discrimination. We aimed to examine the association of perceived discrimination with asthma and poor asthma control in African American and Latino youth.

METHODS

We included African American (n = 954), Mexican American (n = 1,086), other Latino (n = 522), and Puerto Rican Islander (n = 1,025) youth aged 8 to 21 years from the Genes-Environments and Admixture in Latino Americans study and the Study of African Americans, Asthma, Genes, and Environments. Asthma was defined by physician diagnosis, and asthma control was defined based on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute guidelines. Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination was assessed by the Experiences of Discrimination questionnaire, with a focus on school, medical, and public settings. We examined the associations of perceived discrimination with each outcome and whether socioeconomic status (SES) and global African ancestry modified these associations.

RESULTS

African American children reporting any discrimination had a 78% greater odds of experiencing asthma (OR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.33-2.39) than did those not reporting discrimination. Similarly, African American children faced increased odds of poor asthma control with any experience of discrimination (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.42-2.76) over their counterparts not reporting discrimination. These associations were not observed among Latino children. We observed heterogeneity of the association between reports of discrimination and asthma according to SES, with reports of discrimination increasing the odds of having asthma among low-SES Mexican American youth (interaction P = .01) and among high-SES other Latino youth (interaction P = .04).

CONCLUSIONS

Perceived discrimination is associated with increased odds of asthma and poorer control among African American youth. SES exacerbates the effect of perceived discrimination on having asthma among Mexican American and other Latino youth.

A cross-sectional study of parental awareness of and reasons for lack of health insurance among minority children, and the impact on health, access to care, and unmet needs

BACKGROUND

Minority children have the highest US uninsurance rates; Latino and African-American children account for 53 % of uninsured American children, despite comprising only 48 % of the total US child population. The study aim was to examine parental awareness of and the reasons for lacking health insurance in Medicaid/CHIP-eligible minority children, and the impact of the children's uninsurance on health, access to care, unmet needs, and family financial burden.

METHODS

For this cross-sectional study, a consecutive series of uninsured, Medicaid/CHIP-eligible Latino and African-American children was recruited at 97 urban Texas community sites, including supermarkets, health fairs, and schools. Measures/outcomes were assessed using validated instruments, and included sociodemographic characteristics, uninsurance duration, reasons for the child being uninsured, health status, special healthcare needs, access to medical and dental care, unmet needs, use of health services, quality of care, satisfaction with care, out-of-pocket costs of care, and financial burden.

RESULTS

The mean time uninsured for the 267 participants was 14 months; 5 % had never been insured. The most common reason for insurance loss was expired and never reapplied (30 %), and for never being insured, high insurance costs. Only 49 % of parents were aware that their uninsured child was Medicaid/CHIP eligible. Thirty-eight percent of children had suboptimal health, and 2/3 had special healthcare needs, but 64 % have no primary-care provider; 83 % of parents worry about their child's health more than others. Unmet healthcare needs include: healthcare, 73 %; mental healthcare, 70 %; mobility aids/devices, 67 %; dental, 61 %; specialty care, 57 %; and vision, 46 %. Due to the child's health, 35 % of parents had financial problems, 23 % cut work hours, and 10 % ceased work. Higher proportions of Latinos lack primary-care providers, and higher proportions of African-Americans experience family financial burden.

CONCLUSIONS

Half of parents of uninsured minority children are unaware that their children are Medicaid/CHIP-eligible. These uninsured children have suboptimal health, impaired access to care, and major unmet needs. The child's health causes considerable family financial burden, and one in 10 parents ceased work. The study findings indicate urgent needs for better parental education about Medicaid/CHIP, and for improved Medicaid/CHIP outreach and enrollment.

The impact of health insurance reform on insurance instability

We investigated the impact of the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform on insurance coverage and stability among minority and underserved women. We examined 36 months of insurance claims among 1,946 women who had abnormal cancer screening at six community health centers pre-(2004-2005) and post-(2007-2008) insurance reform. We examined frequency of switches in insurance coverage as measures of longitudinal insurance instability. On the date of their abnormal cancer screening test, 36% of subjects were publicly insured and 31% were uninsured. Post-reform, the percent ever uninsured declined from 39% to 29% (p .001) and those consistently uninsured declined from 23% to 16%. To assess if insurance instability changed between the pre- and post-reform periods, we conducted Poisson regression models, adjusted for patient demographics and length of time in care. These revealed no significant differences from the pre- to post-reform period in annual rates of insurance switches, incident rate ratio 0.98 (95%- CI 0.88-1.09). Our analysis is limited by changes in the populations in the pre- and post-reform period and inability to capture care outside of the health system network. Insurance reform increased stability as measured by decreasing uninsured rates without increasing insurance switches.

The impact of insurance coverage during insurance reform on diagnostic resolution of cancer screening abnormalities

We examined the impact of Massachusetts insurance reform on the care of women at six community health centers with abnormal breast and cervical cancer screening to investigate whether stability of insurance coverage was associated with more timely diagnostic resolution. We conducted Cox proportional hazards models to predict time from cancer screening to diagnostic resolution, examining the impact of 1) insurance status at time of screening abnormality, 2) number of insurance switches over a three-year period, and 3) insurance history over a three-year period. We identified 1,165 women with breast and 781 with cervical cancer screening abnormalities. In the breast cohort, Medicaid insurance at baseline, continuous public insurance, and losing insurance predicted delayed resolution. We did not find these effects in the cervical cohort. These data provide evidence that stability of health insurance coverage with insurance reform nationally may improve timely care after abnormal cancer screening in historically underserved women.

Federal policy supporting improvements in transitioning from pediatric to adult surgery services

For children with complex medical conditions that require ongoing surgical intervention, planning for the transition from pediatric to adult surgical care is essential. Services that support healthcare transition from specialty pediatric practices into adult practices are often inadequate, and the healthcare policy process has been slow to respond to the call to action by both professional and patient organizations. However, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), arguably the most significant healthcare reform legislation since the enactment of Medicaid and Medicare in the mid-1960s, includes several provisions with direct influence on access to care and quality for adolescents transitioning to adult surgical care. We present a brief background on the rationale for improving surgical transition plans, the challenges of enacting the plans, and the relevance of PPACA in shaping health policy change around transition to adult services.

Emergency department-based health insurance enrollment for children: does linkage lead to insurance retention and utilization?

OBJECTIVES

Although 40% of emergency departments (EDs) report having an insurance linkage program, no studies have evaluated the long-term success of these programs. This study aimed to examine insurance retention and utilization by children initially referred to insurance by our ED insurance linkage program.

METHODS

We retrospectively examined insurance records of all uninsured children successfully enrolled in public insurance by the insurance linkage program established in our suburban academic ED between 2004 and 2009. Emergency department-enrolled children were matched by age, sex, program, and year of enrollment to a control group of children from the same county who were enrolled in non-ED settings. Wilcoxon signed rank and χ tests were used to compare enrollment and claims variables.

RESULTS

Emergency department-enrolled children retained insurance for longer, had a higher reenrollment rate, and were higher users of insurance. The average length of enrollment for ED children was 734 days versus 597 days in the control group. Eighty percent of the ED cohort reenrolled in insurance after initial eligibility expiration versus 64% of the control group. Children enrolled via the ED averaged 26 claims (vs 12 claims) and $20,087 (vs $5216) in hospital charges per year of enrollment. This higher utilization was reflected in increased primary care, specialty care, ED visits, inpatient, and mental health claims in the ED group.

CONCLUSIONS

Emergency department-based insurance enrollment programs have the potential to improve access to health care for children. Policies aimed at expanding insurance enrollment among the uninsured population, including the Affordable Care Act, may consider the ED's potential as an effective enrollment site.

Caregivers' health literacy and gaps in children's Medicaid enrollment: findings from the Carolina Oral Health Literacy Study

Background and Objectives

Recent evidence supports a link between caregivers’ health literacy and their children’s health and use of health services. Disruptions in children’s health insurance coverage have been linked to poor health care and outcomes. We examined young children’s Medicaid enrollment patterns in a well-characterized cohort of child/caregivers dyads and investigated the association of caregivers’ low health literacy with the incidence of enrollment gaps.

Methods

We relied upon Medicaid enrollment data for 1208 children (mean age = 19 months) enrolled in the Carolina Oral Health Literacy project during 2008–09. The median follow-up was 25 months. Health literacy was measured using the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). Analyses relied on descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate methods based on Poisson modeling.

Findings

One-third of children experienced one or more enrollment gaps; most were short in duration (median = 5 months). The risk of gaps was inversely associated with caregivers’ age, with a 2% relative risk decrease for each added year. Low health literacy was associated with a modestly elevated risk increase [Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) = 1.17 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88–1.57)] for enrollment disruptions; however, this estimate was substantially elevated among caregivers with less than a high school education [IRR = 1.52 (95% CI 0.99–2.35); homogeneity p<0.2].

Conclusions

Our findings provide initial support for a possible role of caregivers’ health literacy as a determinant of children’s Medicaid enrollment gaps. Although the association between health literacy and enrollment gaps was not confirmed statistically, we found that it was markedly stronger among caregivers with low educational attainment. This population, as well as young caregivers, may be the most vulnerable to the negative effects of low health literacy.

The TAKE-IT study: aims, design, and methods

Background

Effective interventions to improve immunosuppressive medication adherence among adolescent and young adult kidney transplant recipients are desperately needed. This paper describes the aims, design, and methods of the Teen Adherence in Kidney transplant, Effectiveness of Intervention Trial (TAKE-IT) study.

Design and methods

TAKE-IT is a multicentre, prospective, open-label, parallel arm randomized controlled trial that aims to determine the effectiveness of a clinic-based intervention, including educational, organizational, and behavioural components, in improving immunosuppressive medication adherence among adolescent and young adult kidney transplant recipients. Individuals between 11 and 24 years of age who are at least 3 months post-transplant and followed in one of the eight participating pediatric kidney transplant programs, or their affiliated adult transplant programs are eligible to participate. All participating centers are tertiary care pediatric hospitals in Canada or the United States. Adherence is monitored using an electronic multi-dose pillbox for all participants during a 3-month run-in period, followed by a 12-month intervention interval. The primary outcome is ‘taking adherence’, defined as the proportion of prescribed doses of immunosuppressive medications that were taken, as measured using electronic monitoring.

All participants meet with the study ‘Coach’ at 3 month intervals. The intervention, administered by trained lay personnel, targets common adherence barriers. In addition to forming an Adherence Support Team, intervention participants identify personal barriers to adherence and use Action-focused problem-solving to address them, have their electronic adherence data fed back to them, and have the option to receive email, text message, or visual cue dose reminders. Participants in the control group meet with the coach but do not receive the other components of the intervention. The study aims to have 75 participants in each group complete the study.

Discussion

Since recruitment began in Feb. 2012, 198 adolescents have been approached to participate, of whom 130 have completed a baseline visit. As of March 31, 2014, 125 had been randomized, and 86, 68, 61, and 50 participants had completed 6-month, 9-month, 12-month, and 15-month visits respectively.

Trial registration

Clinicaltrials.gov registration NCT01356277 (May 17, 2011).

Children and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: opportunities and challenges in an evolving system

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010, focused primarily on the problems of adults, but the changes in payment for and delivery of care it fosters will likely impact the health care of children. The evolving epidemiology of pediatric illness in the United States has resulted in a relatively small population of medically fragile children dispersed through the country and a large population of children with developmental and behavioral health issues who experience wide degrees of health disparities. Review of previous efforts to change the health care system reveals specific innovations in child health delivery that have been designed to address issues of child health. The ACA is complex and contains some language that improves access to care, quality of care, and the particular needs of the pediatric workforce. Most of the payment models and delivery systems proposed in the ACA, however, were not designed with the needs of children in mind and will need to be adapted to address their needs. To assure that the needs of children are met as systems evolve, child health professionals within and outside academe will need to focus their efforts in clinical care, research, education, and advocacy to incorporate child health programs into changing systems and to prevent unintended harm to systems designed to care for children.

Influence of caregivers and children's entry into the dental care system

OBJECTIVES

Early preventive dental visits are essential in improving children's oral health, especially young children at high risk for dental caries. However, there is scant information on how these children enter the dental care system. Our objectives were as follows: (1) to describe how a population-based cohort of young Medicaid-enrolled children entered dental care; and (2) to investigate the influence of caregiver characteristics on their children's dental care-seeking patterns.

METHODS

We relied on Medicaid claims and interview data of caregiver-child dyads who were enrolled in the Carolina Oral Health Literacy study during 2007-2008. The analytical cohort comprised 1000 children who had no dental visits before enrollment. Additional information was collected on sociodemographic characteristics, oral health status, health literacy, dental neglect, and access to care barriers. Our analyses relied on descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate methods.

RESULTS

During the 25-month median follow-up period, 39% of the children (mean baseline age: 16 months) entered the dental care system, and 13% of their first encounters were for emergency care. Caregivers' dental neglect emerged as a significant predictor of nonentrance. Children with reported oral health problems at baseline were more likely to enter the dental care system compared with children with better oral health, but they were also more likely to require emergency care.

CONCLUSIONS

Caregivers have a pivotal role in children's oral health and care. Interventions aimed at improving children's oral health should involve community outreach to engage caregivers in a culturally appropriate manner when their children are infants or toddlers.

Socioeconomic status and childhood asthma in urban minority youths. The GALA II and SAGE II studies

RATIONALE

The burden of asthma is highest among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations; however, its impact is differentially distributed among racial and ethnic groups.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the collective effect of maternal educational attainment, annual household income, and insurance type on childhood asthma among minority, urban youth.

METHODS

We included Mexican American (n = 485), other Latino (n = 217), and African American (n = 1,141) children (aged 8-21 yr) with and without asthma from the San Francisco Bay Area. An index was derived from maternal educational attainment, annual household income, and insurance type to assess the collective effect of socioeconomic status on predicting asthma. Logistic regression stratified by racial and ethnic group was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI). We further examined whether acculturation explained the socioeconomic-asthma association in our Latino population.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

In the adjusted analyses, African American children had 23% greater odds of asthma with each decrease in the socioeconomic index (aOR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.09-1.38). Conversely, Mexican American children have 17% reduced odds of asthma with each decrease in the socioeconomic index (aOR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.72-0.96) and this relationship was not fully explained by acculturation. This association was not observed in the other Latino group.

CONCLUSIONS

Socioeconomic status plays an important role in predicting asthma, but has different effects depending on race and ethnicity. Further steps are necessary to better understand the risk factors through which socioeconomic status could operate in these populations to prevent asthma.

Using electronic health records to conduct children's health insurance surveillance

OBJECTIVE

Health insurance options are changing. Electronic health record (EHR) databases present new opportunities for providers to track the insurance coverage status of their patients. This study demonstrates the use of EHR data for this purpose.

METHODS

Using EHR data from the OCHIN Network of community health centers, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of data from children presenting to a community health center in 2010-2011 (N = 185,959). We described coverage patterns for children, used generalized estimating equation logistic regression to compare uninsured children with those with insurance, and assessed insurance status at subsequent visits.

RESULTS

At their first visit during the study period, 21% of children had no insurance. Among children uninsured at a first visit, 30% were uninsured at all subsequent visits. In multivariable analyses (including gender, age, race, ethnicity, language, income, location, and type of clinic), we observed significant differences in the characteristics of children who were uninsured as compared with those with insurance coverage. For example, compared with white, non-Hispanic children, nonwhite and/or Hispanic children had lower odds of being uninsured than having Medicaid/Medicare (adjusted odds ratio, 0.73; 95% confidence interval: 0.71-0.75) but had higher odds of being uninsured than having commercial insurance (adjusted odds ratio, 1.50; 95% confidence interval: 1.44-1.56).

CONCLUSIONS

Nearly one-third of children uninsured at their first visit remained uninsured at all subsequent visits, which suggests a need for clinics to conduct insurance surveillance and develop mechanisms to assist patients with obtaining coverage. EHRs can facilitate insurance surveillance and inform interventions aimed at helping patients obtain and retain coverage.

Continuity of Public Insurance Coverage

Publicly financed insurance programs are tasked with maintaining coverage for eligible children, but published measures to assess coverage have not been evaluated. Therefore, we sought to identify and categorize measures of health insurance continuity for children and adolescents. We conducted a systematic review of Medline and HealthStar databases, review of reference lists of eligible articles, and contact with experts. We categorized measures into 8 domains based on a conceptual framework. We identified 147 measures from 84 eligible articles. Most measures evaluated the following domains: always insured (41%), repeatedly uninsured (36%), and transition out of coverage (29%), while fewer assessed single gap in coverage, always uninsured, transition into coverage, change in coverage, and eligibility. Only 18% of measures assessed associations between continuity of coverage and child and adolescent health outcomes. These results suggest that a number of measures of continuity of coverage exist, but few measures have assessed impact on outcomes.

Increasing Out-of-Hospital Regional Surge Capacity for H1N1 2009 Influenza A Through Existing Community Pediatrician Offices: A Qualitative Description of Quality Improvement Strategies

Objective: To describe initiatives undertaken by a network of community pediatricians to increase a city's surge capacity for patients presenting with influenza-like illnesses during the 2009 H1N1 influenza A pandemic.

Methods: This was a descriptive quality improvement project detailing the measures employed by a network of private practice community pediatricians in Houston, Texas, caring for both insured and uninsured children.

Results: Four categories of interventions were used: enhanced communication, increasing community pediatrician presence, vaccine distribution, and targeted viral diagnosis and antiviral utilization. Promoting communication between clinicians, families, and an affiliated local tertiary care children's hospital allowed for the efficient coordination of resources as well as a unified and consistent message. Increasing access of families to their primary medical home by employing additional clinicians, extending office hours, and locating additional space served to decrease the number of children with low-acuity illness seen in the local emergency centers. Vaccine distribution was enhanced by effective communication between clinicians and families. Finally, targeted antiviral testing and adherence to national recommendations on antiviral utilization enabled judicious utilization of a limited supply of antiviral medications.

Conclusions: Effective communication and improved access to health care enabled children within the network with influenza-like illnesses to continue to be cared for in their medical home. The measures used in response to novel influenza virus outbreaks can be adapted for other situations requiring increased community surge capacity.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness 2012;6:113-116)

Timely access to quality health care among Georgia children ages 4 to 17 years

We examined factors associated with children's access to quality health care, a major concern in Georgia, identified through the 2010 Title V Needs Assessment. Data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health were merged with the 2008 Area Resource File and Health Resources and Services Administration medically underserved area variable, and restricted to Georgia children ages 4-17 years (N = 1,397). The study outcome, access to quality health care was derived from access to care (timely utilization of preventive medical care in the previous 12 months) and quality of care (compassionate/culturally effective/family-centered care). Andersen's behavioral model of health services utilization guided independent variable selection. Analyses included Chi-square tests and multinomial logit regressions. In our study population, 32.8 % reported access to higher quality care, 24.8 % reported access to moderate quality care, 22.8 % reported access to lower quality care, and 19.6 % reported having no access. Factors positively associated with having access to higher/moderate versus lower quality care include having a usual source of care (USC) (adjusted odds ratio, AOR:3.27; 95 % confidence interval, 95 % CI 1.15-9.26), and special health care needs (AOR:2.68; 95 % CI 1.42-5.05). Lower odds of access to higher/moderate versus lower quality care were observed for non-Hispanic Black (AOR:0.31; 95 % CI 0.18-0.53) and Hispanic (AOR:0.20; 95 % CI 0.08-0.50) children compared with non-Hispanic White children and for children with all other forms of insurance coverage compared with children with continuous-adequate-private insurance. Ensuring that children have continuous, adequate insurance coverage and a USC may positively affect their access to quality health care in Georgia.

Generational status, health insurance, and public benefit participation among low-income Latino children

The objectives of this study were to (1) measure health insurance coverage and continuity across generational subgroups of Latino children, and (2) determine if participation in public benefit programs is associated with increased health insurance coverage and continuity. We analyzed data on 25,388 children income-eligible for public insurance from the 2003 to 2004 National Survey of Children's Health and stratified Latinos by generational status. First- and second-generation Latino children were more likely to be uninsured (58 and 19%, respectively) than third-generation children (9.5%). Second-generation Latino children were similarly likely to be currently insured by public insurance as third-generation children (61 and 62%, respectively), but less likely to have private insurance (19 and 29%, respectively). Second-generation Latino children were slightly more likely than third-generation children to have discontinuous insurance during the year (19 and 15%, respectively). Compared with children in families where English was the primary home language, children in families where English was not the primary home language had higher odds of being uninsured versus having continuous insurance coverage (OR: 2.19; 95% CI [1.33-3.62]). Among second-generation Latino children, participation in the Food Stamp (OR 0.26; 95% CI [0.14-0.48]) or Women, Infants, and Children (OR 0.40; 95% CI [0.25-0.66]) programs was associated with reduced odds of being uninsured. Insurance disparities are concentrated among first- and second-generation Latino children. For second-generation Latino children, connection to other public benefit programs may promote enrollment in public insurance.

Pediatric high-impact conditions in the United States: retrospective analysis of hospitalizations and associated resource use

BACKGROUND

Child mortality in the United States has decreased over time, with advance in biomedicine. Little is known about patterns of current pediatric health care delivery for children with the leading causes of child death (high-impact conditions). We described patient and hospital characteristics, and hospital resource use, among children hospitalized with high-impact conditions, according to illness severity.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective study of children 0-18 years of age, hospitalized with discharge diagnoses of the ten leading causes of child death, excluding diagnoses not amenable to hospital care, using the 2006 version of the Kid's Inpatient Database. National estimates of average and cumulative hospital length of stay and total charges were compared between types of hospitals according to patient illness severity, which was measured using all-patient refined diagnosis related group severity classification into minor-moderate, major, and extreme severity.

RESULTS

There were an estimated 3,084,548 child hospitalizations nationally for high-impact conditions in 2006, distributed evenly among hospital types. Most (84.4%) had minor-moderate illness severity, 12.2% major severity, and 3.4% were extremely ill. Most (64%) of the extremely ill were hospitalized at children's hospitals. Mean hospital stay was longest among the extremely ill (32.8 days), compared with major (9.8 days, p < 0.0001), or minor-moderate (3.4 days, p < 0.001) illness severity. Mean total hospital charges for the extremely ill were also significantly higher than for hospitalizations with major or minor-moderate severity. Among the extremely ill, more frequent hospitalization at children's hospitals resulted in higher annual cumulative charges among children's hospitals ($ 7.4 billion), compared with non-children teaching hospitals ($ 3.2 billion, p = 0.023), and non-children's non-teaching hospitals ($ 1.5 billion, p < 0.001). Cumulative annual length of hospital stay followed the same pattern, according to hospital type.

CONCLUSION

Gradation of increasing illness severity among children hospitalized for high-impact conditions was associated with concomitantly increased resource consumption. These findings have significant implications for children's hospitals which appear to accrue the highest resource use burden due to preferential hospitalization of the most severely ill at these hospitals.

Effectiveness of organizational interventions to reduce emergency department utilization: a systematic review

Background

Emergency department (ED) utilization has dramatically increased in developed countries over the last twenty years. Because it has been associated with adverse outcomes, increased costs, and an overload on the hospital organization, several policies have tried to curb this growing trend. The aim of this study is to systematically review the effectiveness of organizational interventions designed to reduce ED utilization.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We conducted electronic searches using free text and Medical Subject Headings on PubMed and The Cochrane Library to identify studies of ED visits, re-visits and mortality. We performed complementary searches of grey literature, manual searches and direct contacts with experts. We included studies that investigated the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce ED visits and the following study designs: time series, cross-sectional, repeated cross-sectional, longitudinal, quasi-experimental studies, and randomized trial. We excluded studies on specific conditions, children and with no relevant outcomes (ED visits, re-visits or adverse events). From 2,348 potentially useful references, 48 satisfied the inclusion criteria. We classified the interventions in mutually exclusive categories: 1) Interventions addressing the supply and accessibility of services: 25 studies examined efforts to increase primary care physicians, centers, or hours of service; 2) Interventions addressing the demand for services: 6 studies examined educational interventions and 17 examined barrier interventions (gatekeeping or cost).

Conclusions/Significance

The evidence suggests that interventions aimed at increasing primary care accessibility and ED cost-sharing are effective in reducing ED use. However, the rest of the interventions aimed at decreasing ED utilization showed contradictory results. Changes in health care policies require rigorous evaluation before being implemented since these can have a high impact on individual health and use of health care resources. Systematic review registration: http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO. Identifier: CRD420111253

Covered today, sick tomorrow? Trends and correlates of children's health insurance instability

Many children with health insurance will experience gaps in coverage over time, potentially reducing their access to and use of preventive health care services. This article uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine how the stability of children's health insurance changed between 1990 and 2005 and to identify dynamic aspects of family life associated with transitions in coverage. Children's health insurance instability has increased since the early 1990s, due to greater movement between insured and uninsured states and between private and public insurance coverage. Changes in the employment and marital status of the family head are highly associated with an increased risk of a child losing and gaining public and private coverage, largely in hypothesized directions. The exception is that marital dissolution and job loss are associated with an increased probability of a child losing public insurance, despite there being no clear policy explanation for such a relationship.

Comparing types of health insurance for children: a public option versus a private option

BACKGROUND

Many states have expanded public health insurance programs for children, and further expansions were proposed in recent national reform initiatives; yet the expansion of public insurance plans and the inclusion of a public option in state insurance exchange programs sparked controversies and raised new questions with regard to the quality and adequacy of various insurance types.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to examine the comparative effectiveness of public versus private coverage on parental-reported children's access to health care in low-income and middle-income families. METHODS/PARTICIPANTS/MEASURES: We conducted secondary data analyses of the nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, pooling years 2002 to 2006. We assessed univariate and multivariate associations between child's full-year insurance type and parental-reported unmet health care and preventive counseling needs among children in low-income (n=28,338) and middle-income families (n=13,160).

RESULTS

Among children in families earning <200% of the federal poverty level, those with public insurance were significantly less likely to have no usual source of care compared with privately insured children (adjusted relative risk, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.99). This was the only significant difference in 50 logistic regression models comparing unmet health care and preventive counseling needs among low-income and middle-income children with public versus private coverage.

CONCLUSIONS

The striking similarities in reported rates of unmet needs among children with public versus private coverage in both low-income and middle-income groups suggest that a public children's insurance option may be equivalent to a private option in guaranteeing access to necessary health care services for all children.

Reporting on continuity of coverage for children in Medicaid and CHIP: what states can learn from monitoring continuity and duration of coverage

OBJECTIVE

The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) requires states to measure and report on coverage stability in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). States generally have not done this in the past. This study proposes strategies for both measuring stability and targeting policies to improve retention of Medicaid coverage, using Ohio as an example.

METHODS

A cohort of newly enrolled children was constructed for the 1-year time period between July 2007 and June 2008 and followed for 18 months. Hazard ratios were estimated after 18 months to predict the likelihood of maintaining continuous enrollment in Medicaid, adjusting for income eligibility group, age, race, gender, county type, and change in unemployment. Children dropping from the program at the renewal period (12-16 months) were followed for 12 months to determine their rate of return.

RESULTS

Approximately 26% of children aged <1 year and 35% of children aged 1 to 16 years dropped from Medicaid by 18 months, with the steepest drop occurring after 12 months, the point of renewal. Likelihood of dropping was associated with the higher income eligibility groups, older children, and Hispanic ethnicity. Approximately 40% of children who were dropped at renewal re-enrolled within 12 months. Children in the lowest income group returned sooner and in higher proportions than other children.

CONCLUSIONS

A substantial number of children lose Medicaid coverage only to re-enroll within a short time. Income eligibility group appears to be a strong indicator of stability. Effective monitoring of coverage stability is important for developing policies to increase retention of eligible children.

Monitoring duration of coverage in Medicaid and CHIP to assess program performance and quality

OBJECTIVE

To assess measures of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage duration for potential inclusion in a core set of children's health care quality measures as called for by the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009.

METHODS

We reviewed published and unpublished reports and spoke to researchers, analysts, and program officials at the federal level and in selected states. Measures available in administrative data were assessed with regard to the feasibility of implementation and their validity in terms of their association with child health outcomes and state policy choices.

RESULTS

Although many measures are feasible to construct using existing administrative data, prospective measures of duration that examine a cohort of new enrollees were found to be the most valid measures based on research linking their outcomes to program policies and their consistent interpretation across states with similar enrollment and renewal structures. However, the inability of some states to link together data from their Medicaid and CHIP enrollment files affects the interpretation of these and other measures across states.

CONCLUSIONS

Prospective and retrospective measures of duration were recommended for inclusion in the core set of quality measures. Although the prospective and retrospective measures were ranked high in terms of validity and importance by the Subcommittee on Quality Measures for Children's Health Care in Medicaid and CHIP, concerns were raised about feasibility given that no state currently uses these measures to monitor program performance. Additional technical and financial resources and enhancements to administrative data systems will be needed to support state efforts in this area of quality assessment, particularly in the areas of linking Medicaid and CHIP data files, improving reason for dis-enrollment codes, and improving race and ethnicity coding. Monitoring how well states are doing at enrolling and retaining children in Medicaid and CHIP is a critical component to assessing overall program performance and quality and for interpreting many of the other proposed quality measures.

Napa Immunization Study: Immunization Rates for Children with Publicly Funded Insurance Compared with those with Private Health Insurance in a Suburban Medical Office

INTRODUCTION

Healthy People 2020 set a goal to increase the proportion of children who receive the recommended doses of Diphtheria Tetanus and Pertussis, polio, measles mumps and rubella, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, varicella and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines to 80% from the 2009 baseline rate of 69%. The purpose of this study is to compare the recommended immunization rates for low-income children insured through publicly funded health insurance (PFI) to the rates for children with private health insurance (PHI) in a suburban medical office.

METHODS

The immunization rates and health access measures of 109 children ages 24 to 48 months who had PFI were compared with 300 children of the same age with PHI in the same medical practice.

RESULTS

Overall immunization rates for the study population were very high and exceeded the Healthy People 2020 goals for full immunization. Children with PFI had lower rates of immunization and fluoride prescriptions; however the differences were only significant in the cohort of children age two years. By three years of age, the immunization rates and the fluoride prescription rates were similar. There were no significant differences in health outcomes for Spanish-speaking compared with English-speaking children.

DISCUSSION

Barriers to successful immunization practices and strategies to overcome those barriers are discussed.

CONCLUSION

The successful immunization practices and secondary outcomes in this study are a reflection of the integrated care model in this practice that facilitates comprehensive, coordinated, and accessible care for patients and allows physicians and support staff to practice culturally sensitive and compassionate care-the definition of a medical home.

Underinsurance among children in the United States

BACKGROUND

Recent interest in policy regarding children's health insurance has focused on expanding coverage. Less attention has been devoted to the question of whether insurance sufficiently meets children's needs.

METHODS

We estimated underinsurance among U.S. children on the basis of data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (sample size, 91,642 children) regarding parents' or guardians' judgments of whether their children's insurance covered needed services and providers and reasonably covered costs. Data on adequacy were combined with data on continuity of insurance coverage to classify children as never insured during the past year, sometimes insured during the past year, continuously insured but inadequately covered (i.e., underinsured), and continuously insured and adequately covered. We examined the association between this classification and five overall indicators of health care access and quality: delayed or forgone care, difficulty obtaining needed care from a specialist, no preventive care, no developmental screening at a preventive visit, and care not meeting the criteria of a medical home.

RESULTS

We estimated that in 2007, 11 million children were without health insurance for all or part of the year, and 22.7% of children with continuous insurance coverage--14.1 million children--were underinsured. Older children, Hispanic children, children in fair or poor health, and children with special health care needs were more likely to be underinsured. As compared with children who were continuously and adequately insured, uninsured and underinsured children were more likely to have problems with health care access and quality.

CONCLUSIONS

The number of underinsured children exceeded the number of children without insurance for all or part of the year studied. Access to health care and the quality of health care are suboptimal for uninsured and underinsured children. (Funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration.)

Impact of discontinuity in health insurance on resource utilization

Background

This study sought to describe the incidence of transitions into and out of Medicaid, characterize the populations that transition and determine if health insurance instability is associated with changes in healthcare utilization.

Methods

2000-2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) was used to identify adults enrolled in Medicaid at any time during the survey period (n = 6,247). We estimate both static and dynamic panel data models to examine the effect of health insurance instability on health care resource utilization.

Results

We find that, after controlling for observed factors like employment and health status, and after specifying a dynamic model that attempts to capture time-dependent unobserved effects, individuals who have multiple transitions into and out of Medicaid have higher emergency room utilization, more office visits, more hospitalizations, and refill their prescriptions less often.

Conclusions

Individuals with more than one transition in health insurance status over the study period were likely to have higher health care utilization than individuals with one or fewer transitions. If these effects are causal, in addition to individual benefits, there are potentially large benefits for Medicaid programs from reducing avoidable insurance instability. These results suggest the importance of including provisions to facilitate continuous enrollment in public programs as the United States pursues health reform.

Patterns of medicaid disenrollment for youth with mental health problems

Young people who receive Medicaid-funded mental health services during the transition to adulthood often face disenrollment from Medicaid without continuity into publicly funded services. This article investigates the longitudinal predictors of these coverage gaps and disenrollment from age 16 to 23 years. Cox regression analyses estimated predictors of time until the first loss of coverage for 180 days or more, and time until final disenrollment with no subsequent reenrollment. Females were much more likely to regain and retain coverage after initial loss. Funding source and diagnoses predicted Medicaid retention differentially by gender. For both genders, funding through Social Security Income or a diagnosis of Mental Retardation/ Developmental Disabilities was related to Medicaid retention. Disenrollment especially affected males precisely at their 18th and 19th birthdays. Nearly one third of females qualified for Medicaid because of pregnancy. Eligibility guidelines relate to retention and loss during the transition to adulthood and may need reevaluation to ensure continuity of care.

Impact of patient-centered medical home assignment on emergency room visits among uninsured patients in a county health system

The Medical Services Initiative program--a safety net-based system of care--in Orange County included assignment of uninsured, low-income residents to a patient-centered medical home. The medical home provided case management, a team-based approach for treating disease, and increased access to primary and specialty care among other elements of a patient-centered medical home. Providers were paid an enhanced fee and pay-for-performance incentives to ensure delivery of comprehensive treatment. Medical Services Initiative enrollees who were assigned to a medical home for longer time periods were less likely to have any emergency room (ER) visits or multiple ER visits. Switching medical homes three or more times was associated with enrollees being more likely to have any ER visits or multiple ER visits. The findings provide evidence that successful implementation of the patient-centered medical home model in a county-based safety net system is possible and can reduce unnecessary ER use.

Unmet prescription medication need in U.S. children

OBJECTIVES

To examine the nature and extent of unmet prescription medication need (UPMN) in children and its predictors using the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH).

DESIGN

Retrospective cross-sectional survey.

SETTING

United States in 2003-2004.

PARTICIPANTS

Parents or guardians who knew most about child's (<18 years of age) health and health care and reported about their children's prescription medication use.

INTERVENTION

NSCH-a population-based telephone survey-based on complex probability sampling design.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Nature and extent of UPMN in children and predictors of UPMN for any reason and as a result of cost, health plan problems, and lack of insurance within the conceptual framework of the Andersen behavioral model.

RESULTS

According to NSCH, 0.54 million (95% CI 0.46-0.62) or 1.23% (1.05-1.41%) of children experienced UPMN. The highest prevalence of UPMN was seen among blacks (2.3%), families with income less than 200% of federal poverty level (2.4%), and those having good, fair, or poor perceived health status (3.2%). A high prevalence of UPMN was also found in children with gained (5.3%), lost (3.7%), or no insurance (6.4%). Among children with UPMN, 35.39% (28.56-42.23%) did not receive medications because of cost, 26.51% (20.28-32.74%) because of health plan problems, and 40.73% (33.21-48.24%) because of lack of insurance. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that predisposing (race), enabling (poverty and insurance), and need (perceived health status and depression) factors were significantly associated with UPMN for any reason. Factors significantly associated with UPMN due to cost included enabling (insurance) and need (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and asthma) factors. The predictors of UPMN resulting from health plan problems included predisposing (race) and enabling (insurance) factors, whereas UPMN caused by lack of insurance was only associated with an enabling factor (age).

CONCLUSION

More than 0.5 million children in the United States experienced UPMN, mainly as a result of cost, health plan problems, or lack of insurance. The study findings suggest that a need exists for addressing racial disparities and continuity of coverage issues in children to improve access to needed prescription medications.

Severity of head computed tomography scan findings fail to explain racial differences in mortality following child abuse

INTRODUCTION

Differences in head injury severity may not be fully appreciated in child abuse victims. The purpose of this study was to determine if differential findings on initial head computed tomography (CT) scan could explain observed differential outcome by race.

METHODS

We identified 164 abuse patients from our trauma registry with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) > or = 15. Their initial head CT scan was graded from 1 to 4 (normal to severe). Statistical analysis was performed to asses the correlation between race, head CT grade, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, and mortality.

RESULTS

Overall mortality was 17%: 11% for white children, 32% for African-American children (P < .05). In review of the head CT scans there was no difference by race in types of injuries or head CT grade. Using a multivariate regression model, African-American race remained an independent risk factor for mortality with an odd ratio of 4.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6-11.5).

CONCLUSION

African-American children had a significantly higher mortality rate despite similar findings on initial head CT scans. Factors other than injury severity may explain these disparate outcomes.

Obtaining health care services for low-income children: a hierarchy of needs

INTRODUCTION

Basic health care is beyond the reach of many families, partly due to lack of health insurance. Many of those with insurance also experience unmet need and limited access. In this study, low-income parents illuminate barriers to obtaining health care services for their children.

METHODS

We surveyed a random sample of families from Oregon's food stamp population with children eligible for public insurance, based on household income. Mixed-methods included: (1) multivariable analysis of data from 2,681 completed surveys, and (2) qualitative study of written narratives from 722 parents.

RESULTS

Lack of health insurance was the most consistent predictor of unmet health care needs in the quantitative analysis. Qualitatively, health insurance instability, lack of access to services despite having insurance, and unaffordable costs were major concerns.

CONCLUSIONS

Parents in this low-income population view insurance coverage as different from access to services, and reported a hierarchy of needs. Insurance was the primary concern; access and costs were secondary.