Low-income non-Hispanic white patients may have been better able to obtain, or take advantage of the benefits of Medicaid for complex surgery.

‘The proportion of minority Medicaid patients treated at hospitals that provide high-quality cancer surgery fell significantly compared to their white counterparts.’

The finding surprised the researchers who expected to see a shrinking racial gap, but instead found the proportion of minority Medicaid patients treated at hospitals that provide high-quality cancer surgery fell significantly compared to their white counterparts. 




The Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS) study included 67,685 patients, of which 15 percent were Medicaid beneficiaries or uninsured. Only 12 percent of the Medicaid beneficiaries were African-American and 67 percent were non-Hispanic white.
The researchers conclude that over a 21-month period following the state's Medicaid expansion, racial disparity increased by 18 percentage points in hospitals with the highest volume of cancer surgeries performed -- an indicator of quality of surgical cancer care. Racial disparity in access to low-mortality hospitals -- another quality measure -- showed a similar pattern, increasing by 10 percentage points.
These disparities did not occur because of Medicaid insurance status. Researchers found access to Medicaid patients had increased at these hospitals. The researchers say the reason appears to be because, relative to the expansion, more white Medicaid patients and fewer African-American patients, received cancer surgery at high volume hospitals.
"Low-income non-Hispanic white patients may have been better able to obtain, or take advantage of the benefits of Medicaid for complex surgery," says the study's senior investigator, Waddah B. Al-Refaie, MD, FACS, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Surgeon-In-Chief, and chief of surgical oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
Advertisement
Source-Eurekalert