PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Primary care visits available to most uninsured, but at a high price

'Secret shopper' study finds cost of basic new patient visit without health insurance far more than most uninsured can afford

2015-05-04
(Press-News.org) Uninsured people don't have any more difficulty getting appointments with primary care doctors than those with insurance, but they get them at prices that are likely unaffordable to a typical uninsured person, according to new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health-led research.

And payment options are not very flexible, with only one in five people told they could be seen without paying the whole cost up front, suggests the new study published in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs.

"There's a discouragement factor for uninsured people when it comes to seeing a doctor when they are sick," says study leader Brendan Saloner, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "If you pick up the phone and the cost is high, you may stop looking - even if you are really sick. For a lot of people it's bewildering to navigate the primary care market without health insurance."

Saloner's research is based on data from a 10-state telephone survey in which callers posed as patients from November 2012 to March 2013 to find out whether they could get a new patient appointment with a primary care doctor and, if so, how much a basic visit would cost. Callers only revealed their uninsured status after being offered an appointment. The audit, which included 1,613 completed calls, was conducted before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in late 2013, which not only has given more patients private insurance but also has increased the number of people with Medicaid in many states.

While there are fewer uninsured people now and the number is expected to drop again in 2015, Saloner says, there is still a sizable uninsured population in the United States, particularly those who live in states that have not expanded Medicaid and who still believe that coverage on the ACA marketplace is unaffordable.

In total, roughly 79 percent of uninsured callers in the study were offered an appointment, while only about six percent who were denied an appointment were told that the denial was due to insurance status (other reasons included that the practice wasn't taking new patients). The average price of a new uninsured patient appointment was quoted as $160, with some variation among states (a low of $128 in Pennsylvania and a high of $188 in Oregon). The price was significantly lower at federally qualified health centers ($109). Prices were also lower for offices in zip codes with higher poverty rates. The price was for a basic new patient appointment, and the callers did not request price quotes for any additional blood work, imaging or other testing.

Still, Saloner points out, a medical bill of $100 would represent about one-tenth of the monthly income of a single adult living at the poverty level.

The average price quoted to callers in the study was lower than actual total amounts paid for privately insured new patient primary care visits in the same states (an average of $200), as reported in previously reported research. Of those visits, the average out of pocket cost for privately insured patients was $49.

Only 18 percent of uninsured callers were told they could bring less than the full amount to the visit and pay the rest later. On average, those told they could arrange a payment plan were told to bring 61 percent of the cost of the appointment to be seen.

Saloner says expanding Medicaid beyond the 29 states and the District of Columbia that have already done so, would enable more people to afford basic health care.

"Even with improvements coming with implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the system will make an uninsured person really think twice about whether he or she needs to go to the doctor," Saloner says.

INFORMATION:

"Most Uninsured Adults Could Schedule Primary Care Visits Before the ACA, But Average Price Was $160," was written by Brendan Saloner, Daniel Polsky, Genevieve M. Kenney, Katherine Hempstead and Karin V. Rhodes. Collaborators are based at the University of Pennsylvania, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.

The study was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New screening technique could pick up twice as many women with ovarian cancer

2015-05-04
A new screening method can detect twice as many women with ovarian cancer as conventional strategies, according to the latest results from the largest trial of its kind led by UCL. The method uses a statistical calculation to interpret changing levels in women's blood of a protein called CA125, which is linked to ovarian cancer. This gives a more accurate prediction of a woman's individual risk of developing cancer, compared to the conventional screening method which uses a fixed 'cut-off' point for CA125. The new method detected cancer in 86% of women with invasive epithelial ...

Racial differences in male breast cancer outcomes

2015-05-04
ATLANTA -- May 4, 2015 -- While black and white men under age 65 diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer received similar treatment, blacks had a 76% higher risk of death than whites, according to a new study. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that the disparity was significantly reduced after accounting for differences in insurance and income. Male breast cancer is a rare disease, accounting for less than 1% of all cancers in men and approximately 2% of all breast cancers in the United States. Black men have a higher incidence of breast ...

How oxidizing a heart 'brake' causes heart damage

2015-05-04
Oxidative stress has been long known to fuel disease, but how exactly it damages various organs has been challenging to sort out. Now scientists from Johns Hopkins say research in mice reveals why oxidation comes to be so corrosive to heart muscle. A report on the results, published online May 4 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, shows that oxidation inside the cardiac cells precipitates heart failure by disrupting the work of a heart-shielding protein called PKG, known to act as a natural "brake" against biological stressors like chronically elevated blood pressure, ...

Are scare tactics off the table for public health campaigns targeting HIV?

2015-05-04
Over the last ten years, public health campaigns in New York City around smoking, obesity, and HIV underwent a dramatic shift to use fear and disgust to spur behavior change, sometimes with the unintended consequence of stigmatizing affected populations. In a new article published in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs, scholars at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health explore the implications of this shift to fear-based campaigns in the present public health environment. Beginning in 2005, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene ...

Green tea extract and exercise hinder progress of Alzheimer's disease in mice

2015-05-04
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Alzheimer's disease (AD) may affect as many as 5.5 million Americans. Scientists currently are seeking treatments and therapies found in common foods that will help stave off the disease or prevent it completely. Now, University of Missouri researchers have determined that a compound found in green tea, and voluntary exercise, slows the progression of the disease in mice and may reverse its effects. Further study of the commonly found extract could lead to advancements in the treatment and prevention ...

Enhancing emergency medical care for seniors could reduce hospital admissions

2015-05-04
(NEW YORK - May 4) Applying palliative care principles to emergency departments may reduce the number of geriatric patients admitted to intensive care units, possibly extending lives and reducing Medicare costs, according to a three-year analysis by Mount Sinai researchers set to be published in the May edition of Health Affairs, which can be found online. "Data show that more than half of Americans ages 65 and older are seen in the emergency department in the last month of their lives, and that the number and rate of admissions to intensive care units among older adults ...

'Fuzzy thinking' in depression & bipolar disorder: New research finds effect is real

2015-05-04
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- People with depression or bipolar disorder often feel their thinking ability has gotten "fuzzy", or less sharp than before their symptoms began. Now, researchers have shown in a very large study that effect is indeed real - and rooted in brain activity differences that show up on advanced brain scans. What's more, the results add to the mounting evidence that these conditions both fall on a spectrum of mood disorders, rather than being completely unrelated. That could transform the way doctors and patients think about, diagnose and treat them. In ...

Premature birth alters brain connections

2015-05-04
Premature birth can alter the connectivity between key areas of the brain, according to a new study led by King's College London. The findings should help researchers to better understand why premature birth is linked to a greater risk of neurodevelopmental problems, including autistic spectrum disorders and attention deficit disorders. The NIHR-funded study, published in the journal PNAS, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at specific connections in the brains of 66 infants, 47 of whom were born before 33 weeks and were therefore at high risk ...

Pitt team follows zinc to uncover pathway that fine-tunes brain signaling

2015-05-04
PITTSBURGH, May 4, 2015 -- A study team led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who used specially developed technologies to "follow the zinc" have uncovered a previously unknown pathway the brain uses to fine-tune neural signaling -- and that may play a role in Alzheimer's and other diseases. Their findings appear online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists have long observed the presence of bubble-like vesicles that contain the neurotransmitter glutamate and zinc at the synapses, specialized contacts ...

Virginia Tech researcher shines light on origin of bioluminescence

Virginia Tech researcher shines light on origin of bioluminescence
2015-05-04
In the mountains of Virginia, millipedes have bright yellow and black colors to warn enemies that they are toxic and not worth eating. Their cousins in California convey this warning in a very different way -- by glowing in the dark. But bioluminescence at least in one millipede may have evolved as a way to survive in a hot, dry environment, not as a means to ward off predators, according to scientists publishing this week (Monday, May 4) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery, based on a millipede that hadn't been seen in 50 years, shows ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Printed skin to replace animal testing

Precision medicine could be possible in the fight against antibiotic resistance

Researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University identify new targeted approach to protect neurons against degeneration

Western diet causes inflammation, traditional African food protects

Electrochemical method supports nitrogen circular economy

How researchers are shining a light on kidney disease

Some gut bacteria could make certain drugs less effective

PEPITEM sequence shows effects in psoriasis, comparable to steroid cream

Older teens who start vaping post-high school risk rapid progress to frequent use

Corpse flowers are threatened by spotty recordkeeping

Riding the AI wave toward rapid, precise ocean simulations

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

[Press-News.org] Primary care visits available to most uninsured, but at a high price
'Secret shopper' study finds cost of basic new patient visit without health insurance far more than most uninsured can afford