ArticlePloS one2026
Medicaid expansion and inpatient hospital charges among women with major depressive disorders.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the association between Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and total inpatient hospital charges among women hospitalized with major depressive disorder (MDD), comparing Maryland and New Jersey, two Medicaid expansion states with distinct payment systems, to Florida, a non-expansion state.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the State Inpatient Databases for Maryland, New Jersey, and Florida from 2007 to 2020. The study population included women aged 18-64 years admitted with a primary diagnosis of MDD. The pre-ACA period was defined as 2007-2013, and the post-ACA period as 2014-2020. Difference-in-differences (DID) models with robust standard errors were used to estimate changes in total inpatient hospital charges, adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical characteristics. Stratified analyses by race/ethnicity and insurance type were conducted to assess heterogeneity in policy effects.
resultsIn adjusted analyses, Medicaid expansion was associated with divergent changes in hospital charges across expansion states. Compared with Florida, Maryland experienced a relative post-ACA reduction (DID estimate - $2,313; 95% CI: - $2,549 to -$2,078). In contrast, New Jersey had a post-ACA increase (+$3,366; 95% CI: $2,746 to $3,987). In Maryland, post-ACA reductions were observed across all racial and ethnic groups and insurance categories, with the largest decreases among uninsured and Medicaid-covered patients. New Jersey demonstrated heterogeneous patterns, including charge increases across most payer groups.
conclusionThe effects of Medicaid expansion on inpatient charges among women with MDD differed across states, reflecting variations in payment regulation and hospital pricing. Maryland's reductions suggest that coupling coverage expansion with cost‑containment mechanisms may help constrain hospital charge growth, with potential implications for the financial burden of mental health care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.