TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Uninsured workers have more severe hospitalizations
JO  - New solutions: a journal of environmental and occupational health policy
A1  - Boggess, Bethany
A1  - Scott, Brittany
A1  - Pompeii, Lisa
SP  - 154
EP  - 175
VL  - 27
IS  - 2
N2  - Texas' unique elective system of workers' compensation (WC) coverage is being discussed widely in the United States as a possible model to be adopted by other states. Texas is the only state that does not mandate that employers provide state-certified WC insurance. Oklahoma passed legislation for a similar system in 2013, but it was declared unconstitutional by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2016. This study examined 9523 work-related hospitalizations that occurred in Texas in 2012 using Texas Department of State Health Services data. We sought to examine work-related injury characteristics by insurance source. An unexpected finding was that among those with WC, 44.6% of the hospitalizations were not recorded as work related by hospital staff. These unrecorded cases had 1.9 (1.6-2.2) times higher prevalence of a severe risk of mortality compared to WC cases that were recorded as work related. Uninsured and publicly insured workers also had a higher prevalence of severe mortality risk. The hospital charges for one year were $615.2 million, including at least $102.8 million paid by sources other than WC, and with $29.6 million that was paid for by injured workers or by taxpayers. There is an urgent need for more research to examine how the Texas WC system affects injured workers.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1048-2911
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1048291117710781
ID  - ref1
ER  -