The Financial Impact of a Partnership Between an Academic Medical Center and a Free Clinic

The objective of this study is to examine the association between an academic medical center and free clinic referral partnership and subsequent hospital utilization and costs for uninsured patients discharged from the academic medical center's emergency department (ED) or inpatient hospital.

This retrospective, cross-sectional study included 6014 uninsured patients age 18 and older who were discharged from the academic medical center's ED or inpatient hospital between July 2016 and June 2017 and were followed for 90 days in the organization's electronic medical record to identify the occurrence and cost of subsequent same-hospital ED visits and hospital admissions. The occurrence of any subsequent ED visits or hospital admissions and the cost of subsequent hospital care were compared by free clinic referral status after inverse probability of treatment weighting.

Overall, 330 (5.5%) of uninsured patients were referred to the free clinic. Compared with patients referred to the free clinic, patients not referred had greater odds of any subsequent ED visits or hospital admissions within 90 days (odds ratio, 1.8; 95% confidence interval: 1.7-2.0). For patients with any subsequent ED visits or hospital admissions, the mean cost of care for those who were not referred to the free clinic was 2.3 times higher (95% confidence interval: 2.0-2.7) compared to referred patients.

An academic medical center-free clinic partnership for follow-up care after discharge from the ED or hospital admission is a promising approach for improving access to care for uninsured patients.