Medicaid expansion associated with increase in outpatient surgeries

Medicaid expansion is associated with a more widespread ability to access outpatient surgical procedures, according to a new analysis. Researchers looked at 2013 data from four states — two of which expanded Medicaid in 2014 — and compared those figures with post-expansion data. After controlling for other factors, they found that compared to 2013 data, more outpatient surgeries — including lumpectomies and hernia repairs  — were conducted in the states that expanded Medicaid. Black patients experienced more of an increase in two of the four procedures evaluated by the study than other racial groups.