Increase co-pays. With many ER visits being non-emergent, a study has shown that this does not harm overall health:
While emergency visit rates decrease substantially as the co-payment increases, the findings show no increase in the rate of unfavorable clinical events (hospitalization, intensive care admission) and no increase in deaths. The study appears in the latest issue of Health Services Research.
The population-based experiment followed over two million commercially insured and 250,000 Medicare insured patients.
(via a reader tip)
