Direct Medical Expenditure and Healthcare Utilization with Mental Disorders among Hispanic Population using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 2013-2017
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12970/2310-8231.2021.09.02Keywords:
Mental Disorders, US Hispanic Population, Healthcare Cost, Healthcare Utilization.Abstract
This study sought to assess how mental disorders’ incidence affects healthcare cost and utilization amongst the U.S. Hispanic population from 2013-2017. Using 2013-2017 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data, a retrospective database analysis was conducted for the Hispanic population with mental disorders. Study outcomes were mental disorder incidence, healthcare utilization, and healthcare cost among the Hispanic population. All-cause direct medical utilization and expenditures were calculated for the following categories of health care services: inpatient hospitalizations, hospital outpatient visits, emergency room visits, office-based physician visits, home health care visits, and prescription medications. From the MEPS data, 4,122 respondents with a mental disorder (weighted sample size: 4,789,634) and 30,312 without a mental disorder (weighted sample size: 33,893,665) were identified. A significant trend appeared through the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) with gamma distribution and log-link function. The mental disorder group had markedly higher adjusted expenditures on emergency room visits, hospital outpatients, physician visits, home healthcare, and prescriptions compared to non-mental disorder patients (p<0.001). Similarly, indirect medical expenditures had the mental disorder group spending $110.7 more than the non-mental disorder group (p<0.001). Incremental indirect cost was $26.9 (95% CI: 57.8-163.6, p<0.001) and incremental cost for overall adjusted expenditures was $ 2,958.5 (95% CI: 2,386.0-3,530.9, p<0.001). These results underscore that mental health disorders in the Hispanic population lead to significantly higher mental-health-related medical expenditure and healthcare utilization. Further research is required to characterize better the total medical expenditure and healthcare utilization cost for all health conditions by Hispanic mental health patients.
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