Variations within the journey burden for care between rural and concrete sufferers with opioid use dysfunction by insurance coverage kind

Purpose:

To examine the time and distance journey burden to entry look after rural and concrete Medicaid and commercially insured sufferers with opioid use dysfunction (OUD), and to grasp the place they journey for care.

Methods:

We used Medicaid and the Health Care Cost Institute industrial insurance coverage administrative claims information from 2019 to look at the journey burden to well being look after adults ages 18 years and older with OUD. We calculated the one-way driving distance and journey time between the enrollee’s residence and the supplier’s location. We used the 2013 Urban Influence Codes (UIC) to categorise enrollees as both city (UIC 1-2) or rural (UIC 3-12) primarily based on the affected person’s residence county.

Findings:

The median distance traveled for a go to by a rural Medicaid or rural commercially insured enrollee was greater than twice so far as their city counterparts (rural Medicaid: 45.9 miles, city Medicaid: 13.9 miles; rural commercially insured: 32.9 miles, city commercially insured: 12.4 miles). When we imputed zeros for care supplied in the identical ZIP Code as an enrollee’s residence, these variations endured. Rural Medicaid enrollees carried the biggest journey burden spending a mean of greater than 60 min touring to care, about 30 min greater than rural commercially insured enrollees. Urban enrollees, no matter insurance coverage kind acquired virtually all of their care in an city location whereas rural Medicaid and commercially insured sufferers traveled to an city location for about half their visits.

Conclusions:

Rural and concrete Medicaid and commercially insured enrollees expertise completely different time and distance journey burdens.