FRIDAY, July 26, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Injuries account for more than half of children's Medicaid expenses, new research contends.
The study, by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, is the first to estimate the cost to Medicaid of kids' injuries.
"We determined that the cost of medical care for injuries to children is about $396 per covered child per year. Medicaid's annual reimbursement to managed care organizations was about $734 for girls and $938 for boys. Between 42 and 54 percent of the reimbursement collected by managed-care organizations for each child was for the cost of injuries," says lead author Dr. David Bishai, an assistant professor of population and family health sciences at the school.
Blunt force and penetrating injuries, often caused by falls, were the most common injuries. Burns and poisonings were the most costly types of injuries, at $1,385 and $1,389 per injured child respectively.
Bishai and his colleagues examined medical claims records of children, age 6 and under, who were enrolled in managed-care organizations at five Baltimore outpatient clinics between 1997 and 1999. They specifically looked at the costs of each injury, and classified all of them into various catergories.
The researchers say preventing injuries to children not only saves lives, but could also save hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicaid spending each year.
To reduce injuries to children, managed-care organizations could fund programs to educate parents and caregivers about child safety, they suggest.
The study was just published in the July-August issue of Ambulatory Pediatrics.
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission has created Kidd Safety to help children avoid everyday injuries.
