Mississippi health department report on COVID-related ER visits reveals disparities, cost

A recent report from the Mississippi State Department of Health parsing demographic data of over 44,000 coronavirus-related emergency room visits from March 2020 to June 2021 revealed disparities among African-American Mississippians, women and rural residents.

Rural Mississippians were more likely to use emergency rooms for COVID-19 visits than their urban counterparts, making up 64% of total ER visits in Mississippi during the same 15-month period. It's likely due to a lack of health care systems in the state's remote areas.

Women were more likely than men to land in the ER as well, at 60% vs. 40%.

The financial cost of COVID-19 during the period is staggering, with total charges for COVID-19 ED visits at $189 million; $43 million or 22.7% of which was covered by Medicaid.

Mississippi Medicaid covers about 755,000 low-income residents or about a quarter of the state's population, according to healthinsurance.org.

About 38% of COVID-19-related emergency room visits were covered by private insurance. Medicare patients made up 20.3% of visits and self-pay patients accounted for 10% of all COVID-19 ED visits.

The average charge for a COVID-19 patient in the ER was around $4,253. That number jumped to $5,354 for coronavirus patients with Medicare.

Black and rural Mississippians, women need better access to health care

African-American Mississippians, who account for 37.8% of the state's population, comprised over half of emergency room visits from March 2020 to June 2021. Based on state health department data, 26.5% of COVID-19 cases and nearly 34% of related deaths have been in Black Mississippians.

In April 2020, the health department reported African Americans in Mississippi were disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. It's a trend persisting throughout the pandemic and fueled by several reasons, including a lack of access to consistent health care, discrimination, wealth gaps and a greater likelihood of being an essential worker, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than half of the state is considered rural, according to the Rural Health Information Hub. The state health department's report showed the gap between rural and urban residents' COVID-19-related ER visits widened around December when case counts and deaths surged. From March 2021 to June 2021, that gap narrowed.

Rural Mississippians tend to have higher poverty rates, a larger group of older residents, fewer doctors and hospitals, and have greater difficulty of accessing sufficient health care, Mississippi State University Extension reported.

The report also showed nearly half of people coming to Mississippi emergency rooms with COVID-19 had one or more coexisting conditions alongside a COVID-19 infection. Over 28% of patients had preexisting hypertension — high blood pressure. People with diabetes and COVID-19 made up 14.2% of patients and those with chronic pulmonary disease and the virus comprised 7.6%.

Mississippi has the second-highest rate of residents in the nation with high blood pressure and diabetes, according the CDC.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Miss. health department report on COVID-19 ER visits shows disparities