Table 7.
Estimates of the Effect of MMC on ER Use in Past 12 Months.
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| County; Year Fixed Effects | NO | YES | YES | %change from (3) |
| Controls (incl. b.cert.) | NO | YES | YES | |
| Child Fixed Effects | NO | NO | YES | |
| Panel A: The Effect of MMC on Probability Of Any ER visits | ||||
| Child in MMC | 0.02165*** (0.00441) |
0.03706*** (0.00297) |
0.0195*** (0.0008) |
7.68% |
| Mean outcome | 0.254 | |||
| Panel B: The Effect of MMC on Probability of Any ER Visit for PC-Preventable Conditions | ||||
| Child in MMC | 0.0027*** (0.0006) |
0.0042*** (0.0004) |
0.0021*** (0.0002) |
7.20% |
| Mean outcome | 0.029 | |||
| Panel B: The Effect of MMC on Any ER Visit for Asthma as Primary Diagnosis | ||||
| Child in MMC | 0.0020*** (0.0003) |
0.0013*** (0.0002) |
0.0009*** (0.0002) |
11.30% |
| Mean outcome | 0.008 | |||
| Panel C: The Effect of MMC on Probability of Any ER Visit for PC-Treatable Conditions | ||||
| Child in MMC | 0.0056*** (0.0018) |
0.0138*** (0.0012) |
0.0075*** (0.0004) |
8.10% |
| Mean outcome | 0.093 | |||
| Panel D: The Effect of MMC on Probability of Any ER Visit for Not PC Preventable/Treatable | ||||
| Child in MMC | 0.0034*** (0.0006) |
0.0043*** (0.0005) |
0.0027*** (0.0002) |
11.30% |
| Mean outcome | 0.024 | |||
| Panel E: The Effect of MMC on Probability of Any ER Visit for Non-urgent Conditions | ||||
| Child in MMC | 0.0084*** (0.0017) |
0.0121*** (0.0011) |
0.0067*** (0.0004) |
8.50% |
| Mean outcome | 0.079 | |||
| Panel F: The Effect of MMC on the Probability of an ER Visit for Injury | ||||
| Child in MMC | 0.0084*** (0.0019) |
0.0133*** (0.0011) |
0.0062*** (0.0005) |
7.30% |
| Mean outcome | 0.085 | |||
Notes: There are 2,960,843 observations. Controls include the child’s gender, race, birth month, child and maternal age (single year of age dummies), birth weight (<1500 g, 1500–2499 g, 2500–2999 g, 3000–3499g… >=4500 g), maternal education (<12, 12, some college, college plus, missing), Medicaid enrollment category, and monthly family income ($200, $200–399,…). Standard errors are clustered at the county level. In specification (3) controls include time-varying characteristics (income and age) and standard errors are clustered on patients etc.
To classify ER visits we follow Billings et al. (2000). They use diagnosis to define: non-urgent ER visits (e.g. sore throat); PC-treatable (e.g. ear infection); PC-preventable (e.g. asthma attack); Non-preventable visits (e.g. a cardiac dysrhythmia); Injuries (which are treated as a separate category), and other. Because there can be more than one diagnosis on a record, the subclasses of ER visits can add to more than the total number of visits.