A new data brief from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) reports on spending and utilization in populations likely unable to shop for a hospital prior to seeking care. For this data brief – Non-Shoppable Health Care Services: Inpatient Hospitalizations – the authors compared spending and length-of-stay (LOS) for individuals who were admitted through the emergency department (ED) to that of individuals who needed ambulance services the day of their admission through the ED. Using their national claims data base, the authors anaylzed spending and LOS of inpatient hospital services in the employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) and Medicare Advantage (MA) populations. Findings from the study showed the average inpatient spending in the ESI population was higher for patients that arrived to a hospital by ambulance than those who did not, but LOS was similar. In the MA population, average inpatient spending and LOS were similar for patients that arrived to a hospital by ambulance and those who did not.
Read more: Non-Shoppable Health Care Services: Inpatient Hospitalizations. HCCI