Emergency Rooms See Patient Numbers Rising Greatly

By Rob Janicki

President Obama and everyone of his cohorts in Congress and the main stream media trumpeted loud and clear how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare, would finally give millions more people primary care physicians to see, rather than having to use emergency rooms for their medical needs, whether they were emergencies or not.

Every opponent of Obamacare predicted the exact opposite would occur and it has.

It wasn't supposed to work this way, but since the Affordable Care Act took effect in January, Norton Hospital has seen its packed emergency room become even more crowded, with about 100 more patients a month.

That 12 percent spike in the number of patients — many of whom aren't actually facing true emergencies — is spurring the hospital to convert a waiting room into more exam rooms.

And all this in the face of expanded Medicaid enrollment under Obamacare.

That's just the opposite of what many people expected under Obamacare, particularly because one of the goals of health reform was to reduce pressure on emergency rooms by expanding Medicaid and giving poor people better access to primary care.

The question is why are more people, now covered under expanded Medicaid, seeking non emergency services in ER rooms?

Experts cite many reasons: A longstanding shortage of primary-care doctors leaves too few to handle all the newly insured patients. Some doctors won't accept Medicaid. And poor people often can't take time from work when most primary care offices are open, while ERs operate round-the-clock and by law must at least stabilize patients.

Plus, some patients who have been uninsured for years don't have regular doctors and are accustomed to using ERs, even though it is much more expensive. Others have let illnesses and injuries fester so long they have become emergencies.

Here's my take on why emergency rooms are seeing even more patients these days.  Medicaid has some substantial problems finding doctors that will accept Medicaid reimbursements.  Doctors accepting Medicaid are spread out pretty thin making it a greater imposition on patients to find a primary care doctor close to home for them.  Hospital ER's, on the other hand, are usually a lot closer and those ER's have to accept these Medicare patients.

Studies have shown that Medicaid patients were among the most frequent ER users before health reform, and becoming newly insured only increases ER use by giving an avenue to get treatment to patients who had been forgoing care because they couldn't afford it.

As Medicaid enrollment increases, expect tot see even more usage of ER's as Medicaid patients find it easier  and more convenient to access medical services through local ER's than to find and get access to primary care physicians who will actually accept Medicaid patients.

Read more from the Louisville Courier-Journal article here.