Do patients who mismanage their funds use more health services?

One rationale for establishing programs that help patients manage their funds is that such patients make extensive use of expensive inpatient services. We surveyed the money management habits of 406 inpatients and determined their use of Veterans Administration (VA) services and related costs over the subsequent year. In multivariate analyses, there was no statistically significant relationship between need for money management and service use or cost. The misspending of funds for drugs may precipitate hospitalization for some outpatients. However, in a sample of hospitalized patients, mismanagement of funds was not associated with longer length of stay or increased service use following discharge.