Department Blog

Laura Pimentel, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Chief Medical Officer, University of Maryland Emergency Network, Fermin Barrueto, MD, Senior Vice President/Chief Medical Officer, University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, and Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, Professor of Emergency Medicine, with colleagues from the schools of business at City University of New York, the University of Maryland College Park, and American University, published the article titled “Impact of Health Policy Changes on Emergency Medicine in Maryland Stratified by Socioeconomic Status” in the April issue of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. Their analysis found that implementation of the Affordable Care Act and of a global budget revenue structure for hospital reimbursement on January 1, 2014, changed emergency medicine practice and finance: admission and observation rates were lowered, fewer patients were uninsured, and professional revenue increased.