Hall Christopher J, Thompson Jerome W, Bailey James
Department of Otolaryngology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis 38163, USA.
Tenn Med. 2008 Oct;101(10):39-43.
Managed care decreases reimbursement for surgical referral care and may decrease access for elective procedures. This study seeks to determine the impact of Medicaid managed competition on elective pediatric otolaryngology surgery.
Payer mix was analyzed for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (T&A) and bilateral myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion (BM&VT) charges for an eight-year period surrounding TennCare implementation. The payer mix for hospital gross charges was analyzed for the same period as a control.
After TennCare implementation, hospital gross charges shifted toward increased TennCare/Medicaid and decreased commercial insurance, whereas charges for the two elective procedures shifted toward increased commercial insurance and decreased TennCare/Medicaid.
Otolaryngologists avoided impending losses under TennCare through indirect cost shifting. Numbers of T&A and BM&VT procedures performed on Tenncare/Medicaid patients remained constant, while numbers of these procedures performed on commercially-insured patients increased.
