The effect of losing federal coverage through the Affordable Care Act on ear tube placements at an urban children's hospital.
PURPOSE
15-31% of the population in a large Mid-western city is between 100 and 400% of the Federal Poverty Level, thus qualifying for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Coverage for their children would potentially be available under Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or Medicaid programs. Loss of funding for these programs could be devastating for this community.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed 1162 charts of pediatric patients with tympanostomy tube (TT) placement pre-ACA from November 2012 to December 2013 and 1606 charts post-ACA from January 2014 to July 2015. We filtered demographics by health insurance (Medicaid/CHIP/Other), residential zip codes, identified race/ethnicity within those zip codes as well as gender and age of patients getting TT during these periods.


RESULTS
Bivariate analysis of these demographics between the two periods showed statistical significance (p = 0.0098) between White Hispanic/Latino children receiving ear tubes (pre-ACA = 3.8%, post-ACA = 6.4%). However, there was no statistical significance for insurance enrollment (Medicaid or non-Medicaid) and other races (White-not Hispanic/Latino (nHL), African American, Other/Unknown/Refused) with respect to TT placement. Using pre-ACA period and White nHL females as arbitrary reference, a multivariate logistic regression showed that patients requiring TT surgery were equally likely to be covered on Medicaid either before or after ACA.


CONCLUSION
We demonstrated that the pre and post ACA Medicaid coverage for TT surgery did not change. Underserved children did not obtain other forms of insurance during this time. This demonstrates a potentially catastrophic loss of coverage for children should Medicaid/CHIP benefits be lost to sole coverage under the ACA.
['Russillo|Madia C|MC|', 'Chelius|Thomas|T|', 'Flanary|Valerie|V|']
D002675:Child, Preschool D005260:Female D006630:Hispanic or Latino D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric D006786:Hospitals, Urban D006801:Humans D019458:Insurance Coverage D008297:Male D008484:Medicaid D008876:Middle Ear Ventilation D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act D012189:Retrospective Studies D014481:United States D014505:Urban Population
Affordable care act CHIP Medicaid Tympanostomy tube Underserved children Otitis media