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Patients with Medicaid face higher rates of surgical site infection
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Increased surgical site infection rates seen among patients with Medicaid and the subsequent higher costs related to treating these infections could inadvertently lead to limitations in health care access, according to researchers.
Mark W. Manoso, MD, and colleagues analyzed data from the Spine End Results Registry for 1,532 patients who underwent spine surgery from Jan. 1, 2003, to Dec. 31, 2004. The researchers assessed demographic, social, medical and surgical severity index risk factors against the exposure of payer status for the surgical procedure.
Among the patients analyzed, 354 were insured by Medicare, 334 were insured by Medicaid, 39 were insured by the Veterans’ Administration, 603 were insured by private providers and 42 were self-paid.
The researchers found that patients insured by Medicaid had a 2.06 odds of having a surgical site infection compared with patients who were privately insured.
In light of the increased cost of spine surgical procedures for Medicaid patients with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the researchers warned that higher risks for surgical site infections could correlate with higher reoperation rates, higher readmission rates, longer lengths of stay and an increased rate of cost for hospitals.
The passage of the act could also reduce reimbursements to the hospital, which could lead hospitals to create quotas on the number of Medicare patients they can see and reduce access to care.
Disclosure: NIH/NIAMS grant funds and Spine End-Results Research Fund at the University of Washington Medical Center through a gift from Synthes Spine funds were received to support this work.
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