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What Liver Transplant Outcomes Can Be Expected in the Uninsured Who Become Insured via the Affordable Care Act?
Author(s) -
Glueckert L. N.,
Redden D.,
Thompson M. A.,
Haque A.,
Gray S. H.,
Locke J.,
Eckhoff D. E.,
Fouad M.,
DuBay D. A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
american journal of transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.89
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1600-6143
pISSN - 1600-6135
DOI - 10.1111/ajt.12244
Subject(s) - medicine , socioeconomic status , hazard ratio , liver transplantation , retrospective cohort study , cohort , incidence (geometry) , proportional hazards model , population , transplantation , demography , emergency medicine , family medicine , environmental health , confidence interval , physics , sociology , optics
Our study objective is to measure the survival impact of insurance status following liver transplantation in a cohort of uninsured “charity care” patients. These patients are analogous to the population who will gain insurance via the Affordable Care Act. We hypothesize there will be reduced survival in charity care compared to other insurance strata. We conducted a retrospective study of 898 liver transplants from 2000 to 2010. Insurance cohorts were classified as private (n = 640), public (n = 233) and charity care (n = 23). The 1, 3 and 5‐year survival was 92%, 88% and 83% in private insurance, 89%, 80% and 73% in public insurance and 83%, 72% and 51% in charity care. Compared to private insurance, multivariable regression analyses demonstrated charity care (HR 3.11, CI 1.41–6.86) and public insurance (HR 1.58, CI 1.06–2.34) had a higher 5‐year mortality hazard ratio. In contrast, other measures of socioeconomic status were not significantly associated with increased mortality. The charity care cohort demonstrated the highest incidence of acute rejection and missed clinic appointments. These data suggest factors other than demographic and socioeconomic may be associated with increased mortality. Further investigations are necessary to determine causative predictors of increased mortality in liver transplant patients without private insurance.