Medicaid Pays for a Growing Share of Emergency Room Visits, 2011–2021

Emergency department visits with Medicaid as the primary expected source of payment, people under 65, by race and ethnicity, 2011–2021. CDC.

Key points

• Among people under 65, the share of emergency department (ED) visits with Medicaid as the main expected payer rose from 34.0% in 2011 to 45.3% in 2021.
• It rose in every racial and ethnic group.
• Throughout the decade, shares were higher for Black and Hispanic patients than for White patients.

About the data

• Source: the National Center for Health Statistics' National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2011–2021 — a sample of visits to EDs in general and short-stay hospitals in the 50 states and D.C., excluding federal, military and Veterans Administration hospitals.
• Expected source of payment is what the medical record lists as expected to pay for the visit when the data were collected. Where several were listed, the primary one was chosen by a fixed hierarchy.
• Race groups are non-Hispanic. Visits by people of other races are counted in the overall figure but not shown separately.
• Missing race and ethnicity data were imputed. For people under 65, race was missing for 15.3%–22.1% of visits and ethnicity for 10.4%–31.0%, depending on the year.

Sources

Based on Loredana Santo, Susan M. Schappert and Jill J. Ashman, "QuickStats: Percentage of Emergency Department Visits with Medicaid as the Primary Expected Source of Payment Among Persons Aged <65 Years, by Race and Ethnicity — National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, United States, 2011–2021," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The page's summary line describes the population as adults older than 65; the report is about people under 65.