Association of Insurance Status with Patient Health at New Orleans Student-Run Free Clinics
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Association of Insurance Status with Patient Health at New Orleans Student‑Run Free Clinics Justin W. Magrath1 · Samantha A. Janfaza1 · Nadia S. Abdulhafiz1 · Adedoyin E. Johnson1 · Neha Siddiqui2 · Torrence Tran1 · Rebekah Byrne1 Accepted: 7 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Since the closure of Charity Hospital after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Student-Run Free Clinics have helped fill the resulting void in healthcare access for the underserved New Orleans population. To better understand the health insurance status and health outcomes of this patient population, 1036 patient records from seven New Orleans Student-Run Free Clinics were collected and analyzed between February 2017 and March 2020. Insurance status was significantly associated with gender, race, homelessness, and prior incarceration, but not with education. Substance use rehabilitation centers had low uninsured rates, while homeless shelters had higher uninsured rates. Patients on Non-Medicaid insurance were most likely to be prescribed a medication for diabetes (p = .01), hypertension (p = .21), and psychiatric conditions (p = .04), followed by those on Medicaid, and then those who were uninsured. This study demonstrates the benefits of health insurance and provides important data that can inform future health insurance enrollment efforts and health policy. Keywords Health insurance · Student run clinics · Uninsured · Underserved
Background With the closure of Charity Hospital after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the New Orleans community lost its largest healthcare provider for underserved patients [1]. Medical students and other local leaders established community clinics to help fill this void. Under the organization of the Student Clinic Council, twenty-two clinics under the name of “Student-Run Free Clinics” (SRFC) now serve the greater New Orleans area, connecting thousands of New Orleans residents with needed care. These clinics are often located at substanceabuse rehabilitation centers and homeless shelters, and provide on-site services to a population that would otherwise Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00934-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Justin W. Magrath [email protected] 1
Tulane University School of Medicine, 1430 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois, 807 S Wright St, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
2
have difficulty accessing care. Ozanam Inn is a male homeless shelter that was established in 1955 and provides housing and 3 meals a day to those who need it [2]. Grace House and Bridge House are respectively female and male substance use rehabilitation centers that have offered long-term residential treatment for over 60 years [3]. All three sites contain preceptor clinics which operate once weekly. Other clinics included in the study were Mission, a Christian faithbased h
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