By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The Missouri Hospital Association says people without the means to pay for health care account for a large number of unnecessary trips to the hospital.
A new MHA study out Thursday says low-income people with chronic health problems often wind up in the hospital because they are not getting preventative care.
Leslie Porth is the lead author of the report. She says while the findings are no surprise, the new data will help hospitals focus their efforts on getting people the proper treatment.
"We can specifically go into various communities and regions of Missouri and identify for a specific community that perhaps they're doing very well in the area of diabetes, but in some of the pediatric conditions, there's an opportunity for improvement," Porth said.
Porth says counties in the Bootheel had some of the highest rates of unnecessary hospitalization.
Among other things, the study recommends hospitals better match patients with programs that could help them pay for care.