Barry Katherine, McCarthy Meghan, Buckley Jacob, Jacques Sandra, Johnson Heather, Almeida-Monroe Valerie, De Groot Anne S
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2019;30(2):806-819. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2019.0057.
Non-emergent visits to emergency departments by uninsured patients impose unnecessary costs on both patients and safety-net institutions. We evaluated the health and economic impacts of providing free, walk-in care to low-income, uninsured adults-most of them Hispanic-at a free clinic between January 2013 and December 2016. Providing access to health care services for uninsured patients at Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic reduced emergency department expenditures in Rhode Island by approximately $448,876 (range: $410,377-$487,375) annually and may have also reduced future healthcare costs for this population by more than $48 million ($12,034,469 annually) over the four-year evaluation period. For every $1 in funding for walk-in clinic operation, delivering free care provided a return on investment of $71.18 (range: $70.95-71.40) in healthcare value. Providing access to non-emergent walk-in care at the more than 12,000 free healthcare clinics nationwide may save billions in ED costs while improving the health of uninsured individuals.
未参保患者前往急诊科进行非紧急就诊，给患者和安全网机构都带来了不必要的成本。我们评估了2013年1月至2016年12月期间，在一家免费诊所为低收入、未参保成年人（其中大多数是西班牙裔）提供免费即看即诊服务对健康和经济的影响。在埃斯佩兰萨诊所/希望诊所为未参保患者提供医疗服务，每年可使罗德岛州的急诊科支出减少约448,876美元（范围：410,377美元至487,375美元），并且在四年的评估期内，可能还为这一人群减少了超过4800万美元（每年12,034,469美元）的未来医疗成本。每投入1美元用于即看即诊诊所的运营，提供免费医疗服务在医疗价值方面的投资回报率为71.18美元（范围：70.95美元至71.40美元）。在全国12,000多家免费医疗诊所提供非紧急即看即诊服务，可能会节省数十亿美元的急诊科成本，同时改善未参保者的健康状况。
