California Medicaid ER Visits Up 75% Between 2014 & 2016

Between March 2010 and December 2016, quarterly emergency room (ER) visit volume for California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) enrollees jumped 75%, from approximately 750,000 in March, 2010 to 1,399,136 at the end of 2016. The first dramatic increase came after January, 2014 when numbers jumped from approximately 800,000 to just over 1,000,000 in a single quarter. In January 2014, the Medicaid expansion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) went into effect.

These statistics were reported in “Emergency Department Encounters by Expected Payer” reports for years 2010 through 2016 by the California Office . . .