America’s Essential Hospitals
By: Rachel Schwartz
According to two separate studies by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicaid expansion has given positive changes to those expansion states, in that it has helped reducing uncompensated care costs by providing health insurance to more patients.
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New data have begun to show the benefits of Medicaid expansion, particularly for providers that fill a safety net role, according to separate studies by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the Kaiser Family Foundation(KFF).
The CCF and KFF studies indicate that expansion has reduced uncompensated care (UC) costs by reducing the number of patients without insurance. That reduction has led to a ripple effect of positive changes for providers in expansion states, the researchers said.
CCF researchers conducted interviews with leaders from 11 hospital systems and federally qualified health centers in seven states — four that had expanded Medicaid and three that had not, as of 2014. The results of these interviews pointed to several trends within expansion states:
- shifting patient mix, including fewer uninsured patients
- increased communication and care integration
- improved financial margins and increased capacity
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