Poster Paper: Too Narrow? Comparing Private, Medicaid, and Insurance Exchange Hospital Networks in California

Friday, November 7, 2014
Ballroom B (Convention Center)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Simon Haeder1, David Weimer1 and Dana B. Mukamel2, (1)University of Wisconsin – Madison, (2)University of California, Irvine
After years of legal and political turmoil, the major provisions of Affordable Care Act (ACA) have gone into effect and now provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americans. Many of these individuals obtained coverage either through Medicaid or from a health plan purchased in an insurance exchange (marketplace). What does this coverage look like? Much has been written speculating about the extent of this coverage, but no empirical assessment has been conducted to date. This paper compares three types of hospital networks in California: private commercial coverage, Medicaid coverage, and coverage obtained in the state insurance marketplace, Covered California. Specifically, we are interest in two characteristics of the networks. First, how “narrow” are these networks, i.e. what hospitals are included in these networks and how far do potential patients have to travel to obtain care? Second, how good is the quality of care that potential patients obtain through their networks? To assess these two characteristics we utilize both standard statistical analyses as well as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approaches.