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MONDAY, August 4, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Hurricane Floyd inflicted damage on health care in North Carolina long after the storm's savage winds and destructive flooding subsided.
So says a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health.
The September 1999 hurricane was the worst in recorded state history and resulted in large increases in the use of hospital emergency room and outpatient services.
The UNC researchers analyzed Medicaid claims and enrollment in North Carolina between July 1998 and December 2000. They wanted to compare the effect on counties hit by the storm following the initial crisis to counties that were spared by the hurricane.
A year after Hurricane Floyd, there was no major change in Medicaid enrollment. But the study did find a $13.3 million increase in total state and federal health expenditures related to the hurricane. That worked out to about $7.14 per month in additional cost for each Medicaid enrollee.
The Medicaid increase was in the 14 counties that were hit hardest by the hurricane.
"Our findings suggest that hurricane victims experienced substantial changes in patterns of care that endured for much longer than the initial crisis period. These findings can have important implications for the management of disaster relief for this population," lead author Dr. Marisa Elena Domino says in a news release.
The study appears in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
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