Insurance status and mortality in critically ill patients

Abstract

Objective: The association between insurance status and outcome in critically ill patients is uncertain. We aimed to determine if there was an independent relationship between the presence or absence of compensable insurance status and mortality, after admission to the intensive care unit. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study in five public hospitals in Victoria, comprising adult patients admitted to the ICU between 2007 and 2012. We obtained data on demographics, severity of illness, chronic health status, insurance category, length of stay (LOS) and mortality. We matched socio-economic indices (collected from the Australian Bureau of Statistics) to postcodes. The primary outc..