Care-Seeking Behavior in Response to Emergency Department Copayments
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9097293 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mary Reed (0000-0002-9986-9499, Kaiser Permanente, corresponding author), Vicki Fung (0000-0001-8078-5431, Kaiser Permanente, corresponding author), Richard Brand (University of California, San Francisco), Bruce Fireman (0000-0003-1652-985X, Kaiser Permanente, corresponding author), Joseph P Newhouse (0000-0001-5837-3203, Harvard University), Joseph V Selby (Kaiser Permanente, corresponding author), John Hsu (0000-0001-8244-231X, Kaiser Permanente, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 810-816 |
| Publication date | 2005-08-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Care (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0025-7079 • E-ISSN: 1537-1948 |
| Publisher | Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1097/01.mlr.0000170416.68260.78 |
| PMID | 16034295 |
| OpenAlex | W2086693335 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 11 |
BACKGROUND: Patients are increasingly paying for more of their medical care through cost-sharing, yet little is known about how patients change the ways that they seek care in response. OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess how patients change their care-seeking behavior in response to emergency department (ED) copayments. RESEARCH DESIGN: Telephone interviews with a stratified random sample of adult members of a large integrated delivery system. SUBJECTS: There were 932 respondents (72% response rate). MEASURES: We examined participants' knowledge of their copayment level for ED services, and measures of how the cost-sharing affected their decisions about where or when to seek care. RESULTS: Overall, 82% of participants faced a copayment for ED services (ranging between 5 US dollars and 100 US dollars), and 41% correctly reported the amount of this copayment. In response to the perceived copayment amount, 19% reported changing their care-seeking behavior within the previous 12 months: 12% sought care from an alternate delivery site, 12% contacted a provider by telephone or the Internet, 9% delayed going to the ED, and 2% avoided medical care altogether. In multivariate models, the ED cost-sharing amount was significantly associated with reporting changes in care-seeking behavior. CONCLUSIONS: When faced with an ED copayment, patients in the health system most commonly shifted toward seeking care from other available alternatives, and rarely avoid medical care altogether
Copayment · Cost sharing · Emergency department · Family medicine · Health care · Managed care · Medical care · Medical emergency · Multivariate analysis · Healthcare Policy and Management · Interprofessional Education and Collaboration · Medicine · Nursing · Primary Care and Health Outcomes
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| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Highly cited | No |