Quality & Patient Safety

Massachusetts ERs still overcrowded despite universal healthcare program

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, October 8, 2008

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Although Massachusetts has required its residents to have health insurance since passing a 2006 law, the state's emergency rooms (ER) are still overcrowded, says The Boston Globe. Newly insured patients are not seeing primary care physicians (PCP) for routine medical care, and instead continue to use ERs for non-urgent health matters. Those patients who have received state subsidized insurance use the ERs for this type of care 14% more often than other residents, and residents with the lowest income who use state subsidized insurance are using ERs 27% more often than other residents, says the article.

Many hospital leaders say this problem still exists because there are not enough PCPs to handle the increased number of patients. The Division of Health Care Finance and Policy estimates that in 2005, the total cost of non-urgent care given in the ER tops $1 billion, with each visit costing about $976. Comparatively, a visit to a PCP costs between $84 and $164, says the article.

To read the article, click here.



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