Healthcare Utilization and Chronic Disease Management for Non-Medicaid-Eligible Patients in a City-Wide Safety-Net Healthcare Access Program.

Abstract

In 2019, New York City (NYC) launched NYC Care (NYCC), a healthcare access program through NYC Health + Hospitals (H + H) for individuals who are ineligible for federally funded health insurance programs or cannot purchase insurance through the State Marketplace, predominantly undocumented individuals. To examine the sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare use patterns, and chronic disease quality measures for diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension among NYCC patients compared with Medicaid patients seen at NYC H + H. Observational study. Adults aged 18years and older enrolled in NYCC (N = 83,003) or Medicaid (N = 512,012) as of January 1, 2022. Patients were included if they had at least one visit between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021. Sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare use patterns, and quality measures for DM and hypertension. NYCC patients (n = 83,003) were, on average, older, more likely to be Hispanic with Spanish as their preferred language, had more comorbidities, and had more primary care (adjusted incidence rate ratio 2.75 [95% confidence interval 2.71, 2.80]) and specialty care (2.22 [2.17, 2.26]) visits compared to Medicaid patients (n = 512,012). Rates of emergency department visits were similar between the two groups (1.02 [1.00, 1.04]), but NYCC patients had relatively fewer hospitalizations (0.64 [0.62, 0.67]). NYCC patients with DM or hypertension had higher rates of having a documented hemoglobin A1c or blood pressure in 2022, respectively, and clinically similar rates of chronic disease control (mean difference in hemoglobin A1c - 0.05 [- 0.09, - 0.01] in patients with DM and mean difference in blood pressure - 0.38 [- 0.67, - 0.10]/ - 0.64 [- 0.82, - 0.46]) compared with Medicaid patients. NYCC effectively enrolled a large number of uninsured participants and provided them with healthcare access similar to that of Medicaid patients. Future studies should evaluate the impact of NYCC enrollment on healthcare utilization and disease outcomes.