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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Cheryl Zlotnick, MS DrPH and Laurie Soman, MSW. Center for the Vulnerable Child, Children's Hospital Oakland, 747 52nd Street, Oakland, CA 94609-1809, (510) 428-3783, czlotnick@aol.com
Children of families living in poverty not only have disproportionately more health problems, but also disproportionately less access to services and poorer health care service utilization. One serious barrier to pediatric care among low-income families is loss of insurer. Many families whose children whose third party payer is Medicaid must complete applications to maintain eligibility for Medicaid. If for these applications are not completed, the child may become uninsured. We hypothesize that children who have maintained Medicaid insurance compared to those who have not will be more likely to have preventive care visits and less likely to have emergency room visits. We further hypothesize that transient situations such as homeless episodes, foster care placement, and living in more than one location in the same one year period will contribute to loss in Medicaid coverage. This cross-sectional study was conducted at a city-situated children’s hospital Ambulatory Care Services’ department where 210 family respondents were recruited over a one year period. A 30 minute, in-person interview containing several standardized instruments was administered to the caregiver. In addition, permission was obtained to abstract the children’s medical records. Preliminary findings indicate that children who have lost Medicaid coverage, compared to those who have not, have significantly fewer preventive care health visits, but demonstrated no difference in emergency room visits. Transient situations does not appear to influence preventive or emergency room care. Based on these preliminary analyses, loss of coverage may be a barrier to preventive care services.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Access and Services, Homelessness
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.