Emergency department visits increase since ACA implementation

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem.news.service1 at gmail.com
Fri Jun 6 23:42:07 PDT 2014


 
May 21, 2014
 
Emergency department visits increase since ACA implementation
 
 
Fierce Healthcare
 
 
By Zack Budryk

Emergency department (ED) use is up since the beginning of the year, when expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect, according to a new survey from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

Nearly half of emergency room doctors report an increase in visits since January 1, according to the survey, while 86 percent expect visits to increase in the next three years. Three-quarters of the physicians don't think their EDs are prepared for the expected increase in visits.

"Emergency visits will increase in large part because more people will have health insurance and therefore will be seeking medical care," ACEP President Alex Rosenau said in a statement. "But America has severe primary care physician shortages, and many physicians do not accept Medicaid patients, because Medicaid pays so low.  When people can't get appointments with physicians, they will seek care in emergency departments. In addition, the population is aging, and older people are more likely to have chronic medical conditions that require emergency care."

A large majority--84 percent--say their EDs "board" psychiatric patients, a major cause of ED overcrowding. More than half of the respondents say they now spend more time and energy transferring psychiatric patients.

Lasting solutions to the influx of ED patients, such as increasing the number of primary care physicians in the workforce, will take years to work, Rosenau said. For immediate relief, he called on Congress and President Barack Obama to take action to strengthen EDs.

"ACEP is urging Congress to make a firm commitment to emergency patients by holding a hearing to examine whether additional strains are occurring in the emergency department safety net as a consequence of the Affordable Care Act," he said in the statement.

A March study found that since Massachusetts' 2006 healthcare reform law, ED use in the Bay State similarly increased, FierceHealthcare previously reported.


 
 
Bryan Sloane
Deputy Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service
 
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service

Contact us at: calaaem.news.service1 at gmail.com

For more articles, visit our archives. 

To unsubscribe from this list, visit our mail server.

Copyright (C) 2012. The California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (CAL/AAEM). http://www.calaaem.org. All rights reserved.

CAL/AAEM, a nonprofit professional organization for emergency physicians, operates the CAL/AAEM News Service solely as an educational resource for physicians. Dissemination of an article by CAL/AAEM News Service does not imply endorsement, agreement, or recommendation by CAL/AAEM News Service, CAL/AAEM, or AAEM.

Follow CAL/AAEM on Facebook and Twitter:
 
     
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://maillists.uci.edu/pipermail/calaaem/attachments/20140606/29879410/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image007.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 19903 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://maillists.uci.edu/pipermail/calaaem/attachments/20140606/29879410/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image008.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 941 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://maillists.uci.edu/pipermail/calaaem/attachments/20140606/29879410/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image009.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 885 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://maillists.uci.edu/pipermail/calaaem/attachments/20140606/29879410/attachment-0005.jpg>


More information about the CALAAEM mailing list