Insurance Not Socioeconomic Status is Associated With Access to Postacute Care After Injury: A Multicenter Cohort...

Access to postacute care services in rehabilitation or skilled nursing facilities is essential to return trauma patients to their preinjury functional level but is often hindered by systemic barriers. We sought to study the association between the type of insurance, socioeconomic status (SES) measures, and postacute care utilization after injury.

Adult trauma patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥9 admitted to one of three Level I trauma centers were contacted 6-12 mo after injury to gather long-term functional and patient-centered outcome measures. In addition to SES inquiry specifically focused on education and income levels, patients were asked to subjectively categorize their perceived SES (p-SES) as high, mid-high, mid-low, or low. Insurance and income data were retrieved from trauma registries. Multivariable regression models were built to determine the association between type of insurance, SES, and discharge disposition after adjusting for patient and injury characteristics and hospitalization events.

A total of 1373 patients were included, of which 44% were discharged to postacute care facilities. The median age (IQR) was 65 (46, 76) years, 56% of patients were male, 11% were on Medicaid, 68% had attained education higher than high school, 27% had low income, and 29% reported a low/mid-low p-SES. Medicaid patients were less likely to be discharged to postacute care compared to privately insured (OR [95% CI]: 0.41 [0.29-0.58]) and Medicare patients (OR [95% CI]: 0.29 [0.16-0.50]). The latter relationship was true across p-SES categories. P-SES, income and educational level were not associated with discharge destination.

Insurance status, specifically having Medicaid, can pose a barrier to access to postacute care services in the trauma patient population across patients of all SES. Initiatives and policies that aim at reducing these access disparities are warranted.