“Our whole society is stronger if we get patients the right care at the right time.”
Dr. Ashley Coggins started her career in medicine as a U.S. Army physician – where all her patients had health coverage through the military.
“The level of care they needed, they could get, because they had coverage,” she said.
When she transitioned to caring for hospitalized patients at St. Peter’s Health in Helena, Dr. Coggins found many of her patients didn’t have access to health coverage.
That meant these patients often skipped or delayed care – so that when they ended up in the hospital, they were sicker and required longer hospital stays and more expensive treatments.
Dr. Coggins noticed a significant shift after the Montana State Legislature expanded coverage under Medicaid in 2015 and again in 2019, providing health coverage for more low-income, working adults.
“When people started having access to coverage through expansion, they came in earlier,” she said. “They were there at an appropriate time, got the care they needed, and were out of the hospital much earlier.”
With coverage from Medicaid, many of those patients – especially those with chronic illnesses like diabetes or hypertension – also got preventative healthcare appointments at clinics, rather than waiting until they were so sick they needed to be hospitalized. That has reduced the cost of care overall, and the cost of care for employers and families.
“Our whole society is stronger if we get the patients the right care at the right time,” Dr. Coggins said.
Dr. Coggins has also seen more people seeking substance abuse disorder treatment away from the emergency room since Medicaid coverage was expanded.
And as an executive leader at St. Peter’s Health, Dr. Coggins said hospitals like hers rely on Montana Medicaid to control health care costs for all patients, and ensure hospitals can continue to offer important community services.
“If we don’t get reimbursed for the folks seeking care inside our hospital, our costs have to go to subsidizing that care instead of outreach to helping provide more preventive care,” she said.
This year, Montana lawmakers will decide whether to continue the Montana Medicaid program as it is today.
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