Rates of Readmission and Emergency Department Visits of Publicly Versus Commercially Insured Patients in a Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program Accredited Center

BACKGROUND: Patients with governmental insurance are known to utilize the emergency department (ER) at a higher rate and have higher readmission rates than other patients. Twenty percent of our patients are publicly insured. Our objective was to determine if there was a higher rate of readmissions and ER visits within 30 days in publicly insured patients. METHODS: Data was analyzed from a single center submitted to the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program Participant Use Data File from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2018. We added insurance status and described quantitative variables using mean, and standard deviation (SD). These were reported as regression coefficients (RC) and prevalence ratio (PR), along with their 95% confidence interval (CI). P values of less than 5% were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The overall rate of ER visits, readmissions, and reoperations were 3.5%, 7.4%, and 2.2% respectively. Medicaid and Medicare patients were found to have longer operative times, 62.7 minutes vs 57.5 minutes (p = 0.35). Patients on public insurance had higher adjusted risk of ER visits (PR 1.43, 95% CI: 0.41–5.3; p = 0.58) and readmissions (PR 1.64, 95% CI: 0.76–3.55; p = 0.21) than patients on commercial/self-pay insurance. Re-operations were lower in the publicly insured group (PR 0.93, 95% CI: 0.2–4.7; p = 0.92) than patients on commercial/self-pay insurance. However, these outcomes were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Publicly insured patients tend to have a higher adjusted risk of ER visits and readmissions but was not statistically significant. The rate of re-operation was slightly lower in publicly insured patients.