OBJECTIVES

To determine insurance-related disparities in hospital care for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF) and pneumonia.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

A total of 22 392 patients with AMI, 8056 patients with HF and 17 161 patients with pneumonia were selected from 31 tertiary hospitals in Shanxi, China, from 2014 to 2015 using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes. Patients were stratified by health insurance status, namely, urban employee-based basic medical insurance (UEBMI), urban resident-based basic medical insurance (URBMI), new cooperative medical scheme (NCMS) and self-payment.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Inhospital mortality and length of stay (LOS).

RESULTS

The highest unadjusted inhospital mortality rate was detected in NCMS patients independent of medical conditions (4.7%, 4.4% and 11.1% for AMI, HF and pneumonia, respectively). The lowest unadjusted inhospital mortality rate and the longest LOS were observed in UEBMI patients. After controlling patient-level and hospital-level covariates, the adjusted inhospital mortality was significantly higher for NCMS and self-payment among patients with AMI, for NCMS among patients with HF and for URBMI, NCMS and self-payment among patients with pneumonia compared with UEBMI. The LOS of the URBMI, NCMS and self-payment groups was significantly shorter than that of the UEBMI group.

CONCLUSION

Insurance-related disparities in hospital care for patients with three common medical conditions were observed in this study. NCMS patients had significantly higher adjusted inhospital mortality and shorter LOS compared with UEBMI patients. Policies on minimising the disparities among different insurance schemes should be established by the government.