Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Impact of health insurance status and a diagnosis of serious mental illness on whether chronically homeless individuals engage in primary care.

Chwastiak L, Tsai J, Rosenheck R. Impact of health insurance status and a diagnosis of serious mental illness on whether chronically homeless individuals engage in primary care. American journal of public health. 2012 Dec 1; 102(12):e83-9.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.
   Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions



Abstract:

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the impact of a diagnosis of serious mental illness on use of a primary care provider (vs the emergency department [ED]) as a source of care by people who were chronically homeless. METHODS: We used data from 750 chronically homeless adults enrolled in the 11-site Collaborative Initiative to Help End Chronic Homelessness and identified demographic and clinical characteristics independently associated with using a primary care provider rather than an ED. RESULTS: The factor most strongly associated with using the ED as a regular source of medical care was previous-year lack of health insurance. Despite high rates of serious mental illness, neither a diagnosis of serious mental illness nor increased severity of psychiatric symptoms was associated with such use. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that people who are chronically homeless and have chronic medical illness would be more likely to access care if they had health insurance. Individual states' deciding not to expand Medicaid coverage will likely have a tremendous impact on the health outcomes and health care costs associated with this and other vulnerable populations.





Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.