Does universal insurance influence disparities in high-quality hospital use for inpatient pediatric congenital heart defect care within the first year of diagnosis?
Abstract
Healthcare disparities are an issue in the management of Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) in children. Although universal insurance may mitigate racial or socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in CHD care, prior studies have not examined these effects in the use of High-Quality Hospitals (HQH) for inpatient pediatric CHD care in the Military Healthcare System (MHS). To assess for racial and SES disparities in inpatient pediatric CHD care that may persist despite universal insurance coverage, we performed a cross-sectional study of the HQH use for children treated for CHD in the TRICARE system, a universal healthcare system for the U.S. Department of Defense. In the present work we evaluated for the presence of disparities, like those seen in the civilian U.S. healthcare system, among military ranks (SES surrogate) and races and ethnicities in HQH use for pediatric inpatient admissions for CHD care within a universal healthcare system (MHS).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 28, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1186/s12913-023-09668-1
Entities
People
- Amber El-amin
- Dahai Yue
- Jie Chen
- Luisa Franzini
- Peyman Benharash
- Tracey Koehlmoos