Case Mix and Treatment Patterns of Medicaid and Privately Insured Psychiatric Patients in Short-term General Hospitals. Hospital Cost and Utilization Project Research Note 9

摘要

The study analyzed length-of-stay and treatment differences between Medicaid and privately insured patients under care for some form of psychiatric illness. Results showed that Medicaid patients in all age and sex groups averaged shorter stays than privately insured patients and were more likely to be discharged to other facilities. The Medicaid patients were more likely than the privately insured to be diagnosed as psychotic but less likely to receive a psychiatric consultation or shock therapy while hospitalized. Medicaid patients were also disproportionately male aged 30 to 44; privately insured patients were largely female aged 45 to 64. For the three most common reasons for psychiatric hospitalization in the sample--depression, alcoholism, and schizophrenia--Medicaid patients were more often diagnosed in the severer stages of illness than privately insured patients wherever differences in severity existed.