Association between insurance status and in-hospital outcomes in patients with out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation arrest.

Background: Lack of health insurance is associated with adverse clinical outcomes; however, the association between health insurance status and in-hospital outcomes after out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation (OHVFA) arrest is unclear.

Hypothesis: Lack of health insurance is associated with worse in-hospital outcomes after out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation arrest.

Methods: From January 2003 to December 2014, hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of OHVFA in patients ≥18 years of age were extracted from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Patients were categorized into insured and uninsured groups based on their documented health insurance status. Study outcome measures were in-hospital mortality, utilization of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), and cost of hospitalization. Inverse probability weighting adjusted binary logistic regression was performed to identify independent predictors of in-hospital mortality and ICD utilization and linear regression was performed to identify independent predictors of cost of hospitalization.

Results: Of 188 946 patients included in the final analyses, 178 005 (94.2%) patients were insured and 10 941 (5.8%) patients were uninsured. Unadjusted in-hospital mortality was higher (61.7% vs. 54.7%, p < .001) and ICD utilization was lower (15.3% vs. 18.3%, p < .001) in the uninsured patients. Lack of health insurance was independently associated with higher in-hospital mortality (O.R = 1.53, 95% C.I. [1.46-1.61]; p < .001) and lower utilization of ICD (O.R = 0.84, 95% C.I [0.79-0.90], p < .001). Cost of hospitalization was significantly higher in uninsured patients (median [interquartile range], p-value) ($) (39 650 [18 034-93 399] vs. 35 965 [14 568.50-96 163], p < .001).

Conclusion: Lack of health insurance is associated with higher in-hospital mortality, lower utilization of ICD and higher cost of hospitalization after OHVFA.