Dispelling myths about emergency department use: majority of Medicaid visits are for urgent or more serious symptoms.

Contrary to conventional wisdom that Medicaid patients often use hospital emergency departments (EDs) for routine care, the majority of ED visits by nonelderly Medicaid patients are for symptoms suggesting urgent or more serious medical problems, according to a new national study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). About 10 percent of nonelderly Medicaid patient ED visits are for nonurgent symptoms, compared with about 7 percent for privately insured nonelderly people. Nonetheless, there are clearly opportunities to develop less-costly care options than emergency departments for both nonelderly Medicaid and privately insured patients.

Physician willingness and resources to serve more Medicaid patients: perspectives from primary care physicians.

Objective: Sixteen million people will gain Medicaid under health reform. This study compares primary care physicians (PCPs) on reported acceptance of new Medicaid patients and practice characteristics.

Data And Methods: Sample of 1,460 PCPs in outpatient settings was drawn from a 2008 nationally representative survey of physicians.

Small group employer participation in New Mexico's State Coverage Insurance program: lessons for federal reform.

Objective: To identify factors associated with small group employer participation in New Mexico's State Coverage Insurance (SCI) program.

Data Sources: Telephone surveys of employers participating in SCI (N=269) and small employers who inquired about SCI (N=148) were fielded September 2008-January 2009.

Study Design: Descriptive and multivariate analyses investigated differences between employer samples, including employer characteristics, concerns that applied to the business when deciding whether to participate in SCI, prior offerings of insurance to workers, and perceived affordability of the program.

Dynamics in Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility among children in SCHIP's early years: implications for reauthorization.

Two-thirds of children in the United States were income-eligible for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at some point from 1996 to 2000. One in five children were income-eligible for both programs, and 73 percent of children ever eligible for SCHIP were eligible at other times for Medicaid. As SCHIP is reauthorized, Congress will need to give states the tools and financial commitment to assure that uninsured children are enrolled in and retain the coverage for which they are eligible.

Access to health insurance, barriers to care, and service use among adults with disabilities.

No studies to date have examined access to insurance coverage or medical care for a broadly defined population of uninsured nonelderly adults with disabilities. This analysis uses the 2002 National Survey of America's Families to examine access to coverage, access to care, and service use for a large sample of adults with disabilities, with a focus on the uninsured. All disabled groups reported unmet need and service use greater than their nondisabled counterparts with the same insured status.

Implementation of mandatory Medicaid managed care in Missouri: impacts for pregnant women.

Objectives: To assess the impact of mandatory Medicaid managed care in Missouri on prenatal care, maternal behavior, and low birth weight among pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid.

Study Design: Pre-post design using a comparison group with birth certificate and Medicaid enrollment data in 1995 and 2000.

Methods: Pregnant women delivering in 38 counties that implemented managed care in Medicaid were compared preimplementation and postimplementation with pregnant women delivering under Medicaid in 78 counties that remained fee-for-service (FFS) for separate samples of white (37,561) and black (13,640) non-Hispanic women.

Moving to mandatory Medicaid managed care in Ohio: impacts on pregnant women and infants.

Background: Understanding the impacts of Medicaid managed care on pregnant women is critical because Medicaid covers more than a third of all births nationally, many under managed care arrangements.

Objectives: We sought to examine the impacts of mandatory Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) enrollment on prenatal care use, smoking, and birth weight for Medicaid-covered pregnant women in Ohio.

Research Design: Impact estimates are derived from a pre-post design with a comparison group, using Ohio birth certificate data linked to Medicaid enrollment files.

The impact of Medicaid managed care on pregnant women in Ohio: a cohort analysis.

Objective: To examine the impact of mandatory HMO enrollment for Medicaid-covered pregnant women on prenatal care use, smoking, Cesarean section (C-section) use, and birth weight.

Data Sources/study Setting: Linked birth certificate and Medicaid enrollment data from July 1993 to June 1998 in 10 Ohio counties, 6 that implemented mandatory HMO enrollment, and 4 with low levels of voluntary enrollment (under 15 percent). Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) is analyzed separately; the other mandatory counties and the voluntary counties are grouped for analysis, due to small sample sizes.

The implementation of Medicaid managed care for pregnant women in Ohio: a case study.

More than one-third of all births in the United States are financed by Medicaid. In 2001, more than 50% of all Medicaid beneficiaries were enrolled in a managed care plan, and participation by these plans in Medicaid is expected to grow. The care of pregnant women and their infants can be significantly affected by managed care practice.