Clancy Slide 23

Director's Update

Text version of slide presentation from a National Advisory Council meeting.

New Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Findings: Emergency Department (ED) Visits in Rural Hospitals

Text Description is below the image.

  • Low-income adults ages 18 to 64 accounted for 56% of the 8 million visits made to rural hospital EDs in 2008.
  • About 44% of adult visits to rural EDs were either paid by Medicaid (28%), or uncompensated or billed to uninsured patients (nearly 16.5 %).
  • Only 31% of visits were paid for by private health plans and 25% were covered by Medicare.
  • Top 10 reasons for rural ED visits included:
    • Abdominal pain (233,064).
    • Back pain (223,248).
    • Chest pain from unknown cause (220,647).
    • Open wounds (211,587).
    • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis (159,002) that can make breathing difficult.

Image: Graphic of two clinicians wheeling a patient on a stretcher into an Emergency Department.

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Current as of November 2012
Internet Citation: Clancy Slide 23: Director's Update. November 2012. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/events/nac/2011-07-nac/clancy/clancysl23.html