The Association Between Medical Insurance Coverage, In-Hospital Case Fatality Rate, and Length of Hospital Stay Following Admission for Acute Myocardial Infarction in Texas Hospitals

Dinesh Boppana, The Association Between Medical Insurance Coverage, In-hospital Case Fatality Rate and Length of Hospital Stay Following Admission for Acute Myocardial Infarction in Texas Hospitals. Master of Public Health, July 2002, 53pp., 22 tables, bibliography, 63 titles. This study reports the possible association between type of medical insurance coverage, in-hospital case fatality rates and length of hospital stay following admission for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Texas hospitals for the year of 1999. Methods. The data sources was the Texas Health Care Information Council public use data file. Crude and multivariable-adjusted analyses were used to examine the relation between type of medical insurance coverage, length of hospital stay and in-hospital case-fatality rates following AMI. Results. Relative to the referent group of private or commercial insurance patients (odds ratio, 1.0) the multi-variable adjusted odds for dying during acute hospitalization were 1.98 (95% CI, 1.53-2.52) for Medicaid, 1.45 (95% CI, 1.27-1.64) for Medicare. The mean length of hospital stay in days after excluding patients with a prolonged hospitalization was 8.53 (95% CI, 7.93-9.14) for Medicaid, 6.75 (95% CI, 6.52-6.95) for Medicare, and 5.58 (95% CI, 5.37-5.79) for commercial insurance. Conclusions. The findings suggest that patient enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare insurance program had increased in-hospital mortality, and higher length of hospital stay following admission with AMI when compared to the patients enrolled in commercial insurance.