Type of insurance decides hospital care

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Heart failure patients covered by Medicare or Medicaid or who have no insurance at all received fewer evidence-based therapies than those with private insurance, researchers found.

Besides having longer hospital stays, such patients were less likely to receive beta-blockers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), according to John R. Kapoor, MD, of the University of Chicago, and colleagues.

Of particular concern, they said, is that just 31% of those with no insurance and 38% of those on Medicaid received an indicated ICD. That compared with 42% of those on Medicare and 41% with private or HMO coverage (*P*<0.0001 for all groups), the researchers reported in the Sept. 27 issue of the *Journal of the American College of Cardiology*.

Ref and Read more: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/HealthPolicy/28608

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