State and Federal expenditures on Medicaid eligible chronically ill children in rural Florida

This paper details public (State and Federal) expenditures for children's health care among Medicaid eligible chronically ill children resident in a rural setting. Of the cases, 78.5% had an expenditure in the study year with an average per capita total expenditure of +604. The mean total expenditure was considerably higher than the median total expenditure (+142), i.e. there was a relatively small proportion of high cost cases. Inpatient services accounted for 54.2% of total expenditures despite the fact that only 12% of the cases had been hospitalized. Wide variation in total expenditures, both within and among disease categories, was noted. By implication, while substantial savings might be realized from efforts directed at reducing health care costs for a small subset of the population, the identification of that subpopulation remains elusive.