In Hospital Outcomes of Total Hip Arthroplasty in the Medicaid Population

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most common orthopaedic procedures. This study’s purpose was to evaluate national trends, patient demographics and hospital outcomes for Medicaid patients who underwent a primary THA. The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) database was queried for patients undergoing THA from 2001–2010. Patients were stratified into two groups based on insurance. We found from 2001–2005, Medicaid accounted for 2.38% of all THA performed, increasing insignificantly to 2.61% between 2006–2010. The Medicaid group was younger (50.3 vs. 65.6 years, p < 0.01). Length of stay was longer for the Medicaid group (4.6 vs. 4.0 days, p < 0.01). Medicaid patients were more likely to be discharged home (53.7% vs. 47.2%, p < 0.01) and less likely to be discharged to rehabilitation facilities (24.4% vs. 29.0%, p < 0.05). In conclusion, we discovered that the rate of Medicaid insurance in patients undergoing primary THA was stable through 2010, prior to the Affordable Care Act. We found Medicaid THA patients had longer length of stay, despite being a mean 15 years younger than the non-Medicaid cohort. Medicaid insurance status should be factored into risk adjustment models to avoid creating additional disincentive to treat the Medicaid population. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 28(4):281-284, 2019) Key words: total hip arthroplasty, Medicaid, insurance, NHDS, outcomes, morbidity, mortality, length