Ore. study reveals expanded Medicaid means more ED visits, not less

One of the tenets of the Affordable Care Act is that once people receive healthcare coverage that allows them to access traditional primary care services, they will stop relying on expensive emergency department visits for care that could be delivered in another setting.

Or will they?

Recently published research out of Oregon, which expanded Medicaid in 2008, found that those who gained coverage actually used the emergency room more than the uninsured. This finding could have important implications for understanding resource utilization, including advanced imaging services.

The situation is fairly fluid, however, and a blog post from The Washington Post notes that in the last year, Medicaid emergency department visits have declined, likely due to new methods of delivering care to Medicaid patients. Follow the link below for more: