Patients on Medicaid wait longer to complete outpatient MRI exams

Patients on Medicaid must wait longer to complete outpatient MRI exams, according to new research published in Academic Radiology [1]. 

They also face lengthier delays when their primary language is not English and if the exam requires anesthesia. The findings were derived from an analysis of over 14,000 MRI exams undertaken at Seattle Children’s Hospital from 2020-2022. 

Experts sought to find potential solutions to help reduce MRI delays for patients from vulnerable populations. 

“Disparities in healthcare access in the United States have been associated with race and ethnicity, as well as socioeconomic factors. Because delays in imaging may result in delayed diagnosis or clinical management, we are evaluating practices within our radiology department in hopes of decreasing disparities in access to imaging,” Sakura M. Noda, MD, with Seattle Children’s Department of Radiology, and co-authors concluded. 

For the study, the team retrospectively analyzed thousands of completed MRI orders pertaining to 9,700 unique patients across a 22-month period. Researchers discovered no significant association between race/ethnicity and time to MRI scheduling completion. However, this span was longer among those on Medicaid (hazard ratio of 0.92), whose primary language was not English (0.90), facing chronic conditions (0.72), and who required anesthesia (0.71). Socioeconomic disadvantage, as measured by the area deprivation index, also did not impact wait times. 

“Advocating for faster prior authorization by Medicaid, utilizing our hospital’s live interpreter phone number for scheduling, and incorporating greater child life support to decrease anesthesia use are considerations for decreasing these disparities,” the authors concluded. “Although, surveying patients and families most impacted by these discrepancies will be important to identify the most promising interventions,” they added.