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Arthur L. Kellermann
Paul O'Neill Alcoa Chair in Policy Analysis
Arthur Kellermann holds the Paul O'Neill Alcoa Chair in Policy Analysis at the RAND Corporation. Before joining RAND, he was a professor of emergency medicine and public health and associate dean for health policy at the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta. Kellermann founded Emory's Department…
Robin M. Weinick
Associate Director, RAND Health
Robin M. Weinick is an associate director of RAND Health, one of the largest private health research groups in the world and the RAND Corporation's largest operating division. Her specific areas of responsibility include RAND Health's contract business line, managing policy and processes related…
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RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2013 RAND Corporation. Last Modified: May 18, 2012 Site Feedback »
This commentary appeared in New England Journal of Medicine on May 16, 2012.
In December, 2011, Washington State's Health Care Authority announced its intention to stop paying for emergency department (ED) visits by Medicaid beneficiaries "when those visits are not necessary for that place of service." To identify unnecessary visits, the state proposed a list of approximately 500 diagnosis codes (see examples in the tableSelected Diagnoses (with ICD-9 Codes) from the Washington State Health Authority's List of "Nonemergency" Conditions.). The proposed rule would apply to all Medicaid beneficiaries, irrespective of age, disability, or place of residence (such as a nursing home)—even if the patient, the child's parent, or the nursing home staff believed that ED care was needed....
The remainder of this op-ed can be found at nejm.org.