Insurance Status, Language, and Access to Care for Pediatric Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury

Patients with public insurance (PUBs) face more difficulty obtaining orthopaedic appointments and have longer wait times than privately insured patients (PVTs). These delays are associated with greater injury severity at the time of surgery, which affects sports injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament tears where early surgical stabilization leads to better outcomes. Additionally, previous evidence showed that patients with limited English proficiency often must rely on informal translation services, such as family members or friends, to communicate with their orthopaedic surgeons, which may represent a disparity in the care provided.

It was hypothesized that PUBs would be less likely to obtain an appointment compared with PVTs and that most providers would not offer professional translation services to Spanish-speaking patients.

Cross-sectional study.

The authors called 50 randomly selected orthopaedic surgeons' offices in California specializing in sports medicine to request an appointment. Each office was called 4 times in random order for the hypothetical patient having either private or public insurance and speaking either Spanish or English.

The hypothetical PUB had significantly decreased access to an appointment (19% of offices offered an appointment) when compared to the PVT (73.8% offered an appointment). Independent private practice (IPP) offices were less likely to accept public insurance (13.3%) compared with offices at academic medical centers (57.1%). There was no difference in access to an appointment for the Spanish- versus English-speaking patient. Translation services were offered at 73.8% of the orthopaedic offices.

Overall, the data illustrated disparities in access to pediatric orthopaedic care for PUBs compared to those with private insurance. Disparities were most prominent in IPP settings, which were less likely than academic offices to accept public insurance. Additionally, it was found that 73.8% of the offices the authors contacted offered Spanish translation services. Interventions should focus on increasing acceptance of public insurance and translation services in IPP settings. Future studies should expand this analysis to other languages and investigate the potential impacts of language on the quality of care provided.