Medicaid is a Leading Payer for Inpatient Stays

Medicaid became a leading payer for inpatient hospital stays among certain age groups between 2000 and 2015, a brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently reported. AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Brief presents data on hospital inpatient stays from 2000 through 2015 by age group and primary payer.

It examines:

• Trends in the population rate of inpatient stays by age group.
• Trends in expected primary payer among inpatient stays by age group.

This report covers the time period from before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010, including the period of Medicaid expansion by states after 2012. One of the main goals of the ACA was to significantly reduce the number of uninsured by providing more affordable coverage options through Medicaid and insurance marketplaces.

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