News & Technology ACEP Slams 'Blame the PatData From Massachusetts and South Carolina on Emergency
Aiming to stop a trend in which emergency patients are blamed for the nation’s high health care costs, Dr. Sandra Schneider, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), recently issued the following statement:
“We are disturbed by reports com‐ ing from Massachusetts and South Carolina that suggest emergency patients are responsible for the high cost of health care. Emergency care amounts to only 3 percent of all the health care spending each year in the United States. Focusing on emergency care as a source of waste in the health care system is counterproductive, as are efforts to keep a small subset of emergency patients out of the ER. “Most distressing is the rhetoric in South Carolina directed at Medicaid patients, who have been characterized
as ‘abusers’ of the health care system. Medicaid patients are usually the most vulnerable members of society because of poverty, illness or both. These are patients who need the most help, not the least. A legislative effort in South Carolina to keep these patients out of the emergency depart‐ ment is built on incorrect and discredit‐ ed data, as well as quotes by ACEP member Dr. William Gerard that were taken out of context and used without his permission. There is also no indica‐ tion that it would actually save the state money, though it would accom‐ plish the goal of discouraging sick peo‐ ple from seeking medical care they des‐ perately need. It’s very bad medicine. “Studies show that most emergency patients classified as frequent users – who make up only 8 percent of all emergency patients – have complex
physical and mental health problems and a usual source of medical care out‐ side the ER. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported in 2009 that these patients use the emergency depart‐ ment as ‘a supplement rather than a substitute’ for other medical care. “Another target, non‐urgent emer‐ gency patients, actually comprises less than 8 percent of the nearly 124 million emergency patients who seek care every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the CDC points out that non‐urgent does not mean unnecessary, as these patients require medical treatment in 2 to 24 hours. ACEP worked for 17 years for passage of a prudent layperson standard to require health insurance plans to base coverage of emergency care on a patient’s symptoms, not the final diagnosis. Last year’s health care
16 EMS PRO Magazine
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