Gun-inflicted injuries result in more than $1 billion in hospital costs each year—and programs like Medicaid end up picking up most of the tab, according to a new report.
"While firearm injuries constitute a small proportion of overall hospital costs — less than 1% over the 2-year period we studied — per patient, these injuries are relatively expensive to treat compared with other types of injuries or conditions," the report stated, citing the average cost of initial treatment for firearm injury patients, whether emergency deaprtment-only or inpatient care, as"more than twice the average cost of treating other patients in the hospital.
Up to 16% of firearm injury survivors were readmitted at least once to the hospital after initial treatment, and those visits cost an additional $8,000 to $11,000 per patient, the report found.Gun injury survivors also face hurdles to accessing care after hospital discharge such as insurance coverage, socioeconomic status and provider biases -- all of which can affect access to health care more generally, the report said.
A majority of firearm victims landed in lower-income brackets and the burden of those treatments largely fell on public safety-net programs, according to the report. Over the two-year period studied, more than half of firearm injury patients for both initial emergency department-only and inpatient care visits lived in zip codes with an annual median household income below $44,000.
Firearm injuries also disproportionately impacted the Black community. Although information on race and ethnicity was not available for ED-only visits, patients identified as Black accounted for over half of inpatient stays and costs, the report noted.Semi-automatic pistols for sale at a store in El Cajon, Calif., April 26, 2021."Many firearm injury survivors are from communities of color and are low income.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Facebook to Pay Content Creators More Than $1 Billion Through 2022Facebook Inc. plans to invest more than $1 billion to attract more content creators to Facebook and Instagram, reflecting the increasing value online platforms see in original recorded videos, live-streams and other kinds of user-generated posts.
Read more »
Why Facebook Now Plans To Pay $1 Billion To Influencers Through 2022The stars produce content and draw mass audiences, and Facebook needs those two elements to sell its ads.
Read more »
Pharrell Williams Awards Over $1 Mil to Black & Latinx EntrepreneursThe singer's non-profit Black Ambition awarded over 30 business founders with sizable grants on Tuesday.
Read more »
‘Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions’ Unlocks $1.2M Thursday NightSony launched its horror sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions early yesterday at 3PM making $1.2M in previews at 2,382 theaters. What’s the comp here? Given the funkiness of the pandem…
Read more »
Machine Gun Kelly Had a Megan Fox Poster in His Room Before He Met HerThe 31-year-old musician says he told one classmate that he was going to marry her one day.
Read more »
Machine Gun Kelly Had a Megan Fox Poster Hanging in His High School BedroomNot everybody ends up with the girl whose poster was hanging in their teenage bedroom, but not everybody is Machine Gun Kelly.
Read more »