Investigation of health insurance costs of the patients with mild Covid-19 symptoms in emergency room

Abstract

Introduction: This study aims to understand the burden of invoice costs of outpatients with mild Covid-19 symptoms on Social Security Institution (SSI); also, how it may have influenced the current economic situation. Material and Method: This research is a cross-sectional, retrospective, and descriptive study. The study universe includes the cases who applied to the emergency room (ER) with the symptoms of Covid-19. The sample group was the patients who applied to the Sakarya Training and Research Hospital (SEAH) pandemic ER between 01/09/2020 and 30/06/2021.Results: During the study period, 130,975 patients were admitted to the pandemic ER. The mean emergency service bill of the cases was $10.6 (± 9), and the lowest was $2.2; the highest was $201.7. There was a weak but significant positive correlation between the patients' age and invoice amount (spearman= 0.051, p=0.001). It was perceived that the emergency service bills of the inpatients (mean=21.9 $) were more than twice that of the outpatients (mean=10.3 $). Conclusion:In pandemic ER, mild symptomatic young patients' bills can be cheap. It was observed that emergency physicians did not apply too many tests and imaging methods in this patient group and were content only with Rt-PCR scanning. Also, ER bills can increase with age.