Emergency and urgent dental visits among Medicaid enrollees from 2013 to 2017.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Better understanding of the frequency of dental emergencies and the procedures performed during those emergency visits can help providers, insurers, and policymakers understand workforce and care provision needs.Methods
Procedures performed at an emergency dental encounter and in the encounter following that encounter are assessed. Emergency dental encounters are those with a CDT code of D0140, D0160, or D0170. Data was analyzed from the IBM Watson Medicaid Marketscan data from 2013 to 2017, a nationally representative dental and medical claims database from 13 deidentified states in the United States.Result
Consistently over time, about 10% of all dental encounters are due to a dental emergency. 28% of emergency dental encounters had no other procedure performed during those encounters. When other procedures were performed during the encounter, the majority were diagnostic in nature, primarily radiographs. Among patients who returned to the dentists following an emergency visit, 43% returned for more definitive dental treatment, most within 30 days.Conclusions
The majority of dental emergency encounters do not result in definitive treatment, rather patients often return to the dentist at a later date for that treatment. Where possible, dental providers could utilize teledental services to triage patients to appropriate care.
SUBMITTER: Fiehn R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7716286 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:OBJECTIVE:The study examined whether the number of outpatient addiction programs accepting Medicaid in South Carolina counties is linked to repeat use of the emergency department for addiction-related conditions. METHODS:The study included the population all adult Medicaid enrollees (N=2,401) in South Carolina with at least one addiction-related emergency service visit in 2012 or 2013. A random-effects logistic regression model was used to examine the association between outpatient addiction treatment availability and repeat use by Medicaid enrollees of emergency services for addiction-related conditions. RESULTS:Enrollees in counties with two or more programs that accept Medicaid were less likely to have a repeat addiction-related emergency service visit than enrollees in counties with only one program that accepts Medicaid. CONCLUSIONS:Availability of outpatient addiction treatment may reduce the need for addiction-related emergency services. Research is needed to explore potential causal mechanisms underlying this observed relationship.
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Project description:ImportanceRelatively little is known about the association of the Medicaid eligibility expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with emergency department (ED) visits categorized by medical urgency.ObjectiveTo estimate the association between state Medicaid expansions and ED visits by the urgency of presenting conditions.Design, setting, and participantsThis cross-sectional study used the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Emergency Department Databases from January 2011 to December 2017 for 2 states that expanded Medicaid in 2014 (New York and Massachusetts) and 2 states that did not (Florida and Georgia). Difference-in-differences regression models were used to estimate the changes in ED visits overall and further stratified by the urgency of the conditions using an updated version of the New York University ED algorithm between the states that expanded Medicaid and those that did not, before and after the expansion. Data were analyzed between June 7 and December 12, 2021.ExposureState-level Medicaid eligibility expansion.Main outcomes and measuresEmergency department visits per 1000 population overall and stratified by medical urgency of the conditions.ResultsIn total, 80.6 million ED visits by 26.0 million individuals were analyzed. Emergency department visits were concentrated among women (59.3%), non-Hispanic Black individuals (28.3%), non-Hispanic White individuals (47.8%), and those aged 18 to 34 years (47.5%) and 35 to 44 years (20.4%). The rates of ED visits increased by a mean of 2.4 visits in nonexpansion states and decreased by a mean of 2.2 visits in expansion states after 2014, resulting in a significant regression-adjusted decrease of 4.7 visits per 1000 population (95% CI, -7.7 to -1.5; P = .003) in expansion states. Most of this decrease was associated with decreases in ED visits by conditions classified as not emergent (-1.5 visits; 95% CI, -2.4 to -0.7; P < .001), primary care treatable (-1.1 visits; 95% CI, -1.6 to -0.5; P < .001), and potentially preventable (-0.3 visits; 95% CI, -0.5 to -0.1; P = .02). No significant changes were observed for ED visits related to injuries and conditions classified as not preventable (-1.4; 95% CI, -3.1 to 0.3; P = .10), as well as for substance use and mental health disorders (0.0; 95% CI, -0.2 to 0.2; P = .94).Conclusions and relevanceThe findings of this study suggest that Medicaid expansion was associated with decreases in ED visits, for which decreases in ED visits for less medically emergent ED conditions may have been a factor.
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