Louisiana Medicaid Expansion and Pent-Up Demand

Background:

Nearly half a million newly eligible people enrolled in Louisiana Medicaid following its expansion.

Objectives:

To evaluate postexpansion utilization trends in Louisiana Medicaid.

Research Design:

We plotted utilization trends for expansion and traditional Medicaid beneficiaries and conducted regression analyses to evaluate differences in monthly trends for over 2 years following expansion.

Subjects:

We restricted our sample to a balanced panel of beneficiaries aged 18–64. The expansion population included beneficiaries who enrolled in the first month of eligibility. The nonexpansion group enrolled at least a year pre-expansion.

Measures:

Monthly office visits, emergency department visits, and inpatient stays per 1000 enrollees, drawn from the Louisiana Medicaid Data Warehouse claims database.

Results:

Compared with trends among traditional Medicaid beneficiaries, expansion beneficiaries utilized 4.59 [P=0.08] more monthly office visits per 1000 enrollees in their first year, increasing to 6.33 [P

Source: Medical Care - October 15, 2022 Category: Health Management Tags: Brief Reports Source Type: research