Insurance coverage and residents' experience in a pediatric teaching clinic
R. Wilton and A. J. Pennisi
Department of Pediatrics, UCLA.
To examine the relationship between insurance coverage and the diagnostic
content of residents' experience in a hospital-based pediatric teaching
clinic, we analyzed outpatient problem lists for 6543 patients seen in our
clinic over a 15-month period. Problem-list contents were categorized using
diagnostic clusters. The frequency distribution of clustered problems was
compared for patients with four types of insurance coverage: indemnity
insurance, health maintenance organization, Medicaid, and no insurance. The
four insurance categories differed in the overall distribution of problems,
but the differences could not be attributed to a disparity in the frequency
of any single diagnosis or diagnostic cluster. We conclude that there was
no important effect of insurance coverage on the diagnostic content of
residents' experience in a teaching clinic.
