Firearm injuries: health care service needs and costs : report to Congressional requesters
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office. issuing body. United States. Congress. issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, June 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Accidental Injuries -- economics Firearms -- statistics & numerical data Government Regulation Wounds, Gunshot -- economics United States United States. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. In 2019, close to 40,000 people died from a firearm injury in the U.S., and around twice that number sustained non-fatal injuries. Over 100 organizations representing health care providers consider the number of firearm injuries that occur each day to be a public health epidemic. Health care costs associated with firearm injuries—both those for services provided during initial hospital treatment and those for services provided long-term—are paid for, at least in part, by public payers, such as Medicaid and Medicare. GAO was asked to review the health care costs of firearm injuries. This report describes the initial hospital costs of firearm injuries in the U.S. and what is known about the costs of subsequent care, as well as the postdischarge services that may be needed to treat these injuries. GAO analyzed hospital data for 2016 and 2017 collected by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality related to the initial costs of treating firearm injuries, and conducted a literature review on the health care costs of these injuries following discharge. In addition, GAO moderated meetings with 12 experts, representing clinicians, economists, and others— selected with assistance from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—to discuss the post-discharge health care service needs and costs of firearm injuries. The Department of Health and Human Services provided technical comments on a draft of this report, which GAO incorporated as appropriate.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (iii, 47 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918317487706676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918317487706676