Alcohol-Related Emergency Department Encounters in California
In 2023, over 636,000 Emergency Department visits and admissions were alcohol-related, representing 4.3% of 14.8 million total encounters, marking an increase from 2022.
Why Publish Alcohol-Related Emergency Department Encounters?
Excessive alcohol consumption can result in serious health conditions, such as heart attack, high blood pressure, cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, stroke, and injuries. These alcohol-related diseases, accidents, and injuries increase the burden on emergency departments (ED).
The California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) examined both types of ED encounters: (1) “ED visits” where a patient was treated for an alcohol-related episode and then released and (2) “ED admissions” where a patient was seen in the ED and directly admitted to that hospital for inpatient care. Acute alcohol-related episodes are a result of rapid, excessive alcohol consumption. Chronic alcohol-related conditions are those that are a result of prolonged overuse of alcohol, such as stroke, liver disease, and digestive problems.
The visualizations below present patient information on alcohol-related ED visits and ED admissions for 2020-2023 by age, assigned sex at birth, race/ethnicity, and expected payer.
Key Findings – 2023
- There were 636,892 alcohol-related ED visits and admissions, representing 4.3% of all ED visits and admissions. ED admissions were more likely to be for chronic alcohol-related conditions (73.8%) than for acute or co-occurring acute and chronic episodes (26.2%). Acute alcohol episodes represent a larger proportion of ED visits (23.1%), than ED admissions (6.6%).
- Patients who were ages 40 to 59 had the most alcohol-related ED encounters overall (36.4%).
- For chronic alcohol-related conditions, patients over 60 years of age had the most ED admissions (47%) but patients 40-59 (37.6%) had the most ED visits.
- Nearly two-thirds (61%) of all alcohol-related encounters were males.
- White ED visits and ED admissions for chronic alcohol-related conditions accounted for 39.6% and Hispanics accounted for 41.7%. These two race groups accounted for over 81.3% of all encounters.
- Medi-Cal was the expected payer for more alcohol-related ED visits and ED admissions than any other payer (44.3%), followed by Medicare (24.6%), Private Health Insurance (22.0%), Self-Pay or Uninsured (6.5%), Other Government (2.1%) and All Other Payers (0.5%).
Visualization
How HCAI Created This Product
HCAI identified encounters in the 2020-2023 Emergency Department Data with at least one Acute Alcohol-related Episode or Chronic Alcohol-related Condition using the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). These codes were based on an article “Trends in Alcohol-Related Emergency Department Visits in the United States: Results from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, 2006 to 2014” by Aaron M. White, et al. (2018). These encounters were grouped into three groups: (1) Acute Alcohol-related episode, (2) Chronic Alcohol-related condition, and (3) Co-occurring Acute & Chronic Alcohol-related condition.
Glossary
Expected Payer: The payer type that was expected to pay the greatest share of the patient’s bill at the time of discharge, not the payer type that actually paid.
| Payer Grouping | ED Admissions Include | ED Visits Include |
|---|---|---|
| Medicare: A federal health insurance program funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Social Security Amendments of 1965 that provides healthcare benefits to those aged 65 years and over and to disabled beneficiaries of any age. Includes Medicare Advantage and Medicare Fee-for-Service (Traditional Medicare). | Medicare | Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B, and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Medicare Risk |
| Medi-Cal: A public health insurance program that provides free or low-cost medical services and healthcare benefits to low-income individuals, financed from state and federal funds; California’s version of Medicaid. Includes Medi-Cal Managed Care and Medi-Cal Fee-for-Service. | Medi-Cal | Medicaid (Medi-Cal) |
| Private Health Insurance: Coverage by private, non-profit or commercial health plans or through organizations. Includes individual coverage purchased through Covered California, and organized charity payers (e.g., March of Dimes, Shriners). | Private Coverage | Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), Point of Service (POS), Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO), Blue Cross / Blue Shield, Commercial Insurance Company, and Health Maintenance Organization |
| Other Government: Public insurance programs other than Medicare or Medi-Cal, including federal, state, county and veteran-specific programs. | County Indigent, Other Government | CHAMPUS (TRICARE), Other Federal Program, Title V, Veterans Affairs Plan, and Other Non-Federal Programs |
| Self-Pay or Uninsured: Coverage where the greatest share of the patient’s bill is not expected to be paid by any other form of insurance or health plan. Includes uninsured patients, as well as instances when insurance does not cover the treatment, or the patient would like to keep the medical procedure private. | Other Indigent, Self-Pay | Self-Pay |
| All Other Payers: Includes payers not categorized elsewhere: Workers’ Compensation, Automobile Medical, disability insurance, third-party payment not included in any other category or stays for which no payment will be required by the facility (e.g. courtesy patients). | Workers’ Compensation, Other Payer | Automobile Medical, Disability, Workers’ Compensation Health Claim, Other |
Additional Information
Topic: Healthcare Utilization
Source: Healthcare Utilization – Patient-Level Administrative Data
Citation: HCAI – Emergency Department Data, Inpatient Discharges – Alcohol-Related ED Utilization, 2020-2023
Temporal Coverage: 2020-2023
Spatial/Geographic Coverage: Statewide
Frequency: Annually