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Article: Studies clash on value of emergency room copayments.
- Article from:
- Business Insurance
- Article date:
- March 18, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Three years ago, 20 large corporations in California became convinced that employee use of hospital emergency rooms was driving up costs and asked their HMO, Kaiser Permanente, to assess a copayment of $25 to $35 on emergency room visits.
This month, in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser reported that the copayment decreased the use of emergency rooms about 15%, with no evidence that employees' health had been jeopardized.
Is this proof that copayments are a tonic for overcrowded emergency rooms? Perhaps, but a second study - published in the same journal - argues that emergency rooms cost hospitals much less to ...