The impact of high school athletic trainer services on medical payments and utilizations: a microsimulation analysis on medical claims.

Background: Increasing athletic trainer (AT) services in high schools has attracted widespread interest across the nation as an effective instrument to manage injuries and improve children's health, but there is a lack of evidence on potential medical savings. Our study aimed to address this knowledge gap and provide evidence of AT impacts on medical payments and utilizations to inform public policy decision.

Methods: We obtained medical claims of patients aged 14 to 18 years from the 2011-2014 Oregon All Payer All Claims limited dataset.