|
Victims with private insurance pay on average $950, or 14 percent,
of the cost of medical services, and the insurance providers pay
about $5,789, researchers found.
“With other violent crimes, victims are not responsible for paying
for the damage that results from the crime,” lead author Ashley
Tennessee told Reuters Health. “Many people know sexual assault is
an issue, but they’re often unaware that victims have to pay for
associated medical charges,” said Tennessee, of the Medical
University of South Carolina in Charleston.
In 2013, insurance providers and victims paid more than $9 million
for medical services related to sexual assault, the study authors
write in the American Journal of Public Health. The average cost was
$6,737 per case.
The Violence Against Women Act, passed in 1994 and reauthorized in
2013, requires states to pay for sexual assault forensic exams,
known as “rape kits.” However, hospital billing procedures often
include more services than those associated with the rape kit alone,
and forensic costs also vary by state.
Tennessee and colleagues looked at hospital billing records for
privately insured women in the U.S. who were victims of rape in
2013. They identified 1,355 assaults, with 98 percent of victims not
admitted to the hospital. The 32 patients who were admitted to the
hospital paid an average of $788 for their inpatient stay. The
others paid an average of $316 for outpatient costs.
Of the group, about 7 percent filled a prescription for pain
medication, antibiotics, HIV prevention drugs, emergency
contraceptives or sleep or anxiety medication. These 214 victims
spent an average of $48 to fill prescriptions.
Overall, about 88 percent of the 1,355 victims incurred charges on
the day they visited the hospital, and 27 percent paid more than 25
percent of those costs. About 7 percent paid more than 50 percent of
the cost. After visiting the hospital, about 63 percent of the
patients incurred more charges up to a month after the incident,
including prescriptions, further medical care and mental health
services.
“This financial burden adds to the emotional burden of sexual
assault,” Tennessee said. “This is an area that society has missed,
and we have a moral right to help victims.”
A limitation of the study is that the data didn’t include men or
LGBTQ victims of sexual assault. It also doesn’t account for
publicly insured victims or homeless women who may face a greater
risk for assault due to environmental and social factors related to
poverty, the authors note.
[to top of second column] |
“Follow-up studies must look at the prevalence in these groups,”
Tennessee said. “We want victims to know they’re not alone in this
journey and recovery process, and that includes studying and
informing all groups about their access to funding resources.”
“We encourage all victims of sexual assault to get a medical exam
following the incident. Anything that is a barrier to ensuring
victims are physically OK is bad for them and the community,” said
Scott Berkowitz, president and founder of the Rape, Abuse and Incest
National Network (RAINN) in Washington, D.C. told Reuters Health.
“Congressional attention has been focused on making sure victims
aren’t charged for the rape kit and forensic evidence, and there
hasn’t been as much attention paid to making sure they aren’t
charged for the other medical costs that result,” he told Reuters
Health by email.
Tennessee and Berkowitz suggest emergency room personnel and
hospital workers inform victims about charity funds that hospitals
and states offer to reimburse those out-of-pocket costs. The
Violence Against Women Act will be reauthorized next year, and RAINN
and other sexual assault groups are urging lawmakers to update the
funding definitions and mechanisms to cover additional costs.
“There are still too many barriers for victims and too many ways we
discourage them from coming forward and reporting to police,”
Berkowitz said. “Receiving a rape kit exam at a hospital is an
important first step in reporting incidents to police.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2oricDJ American Journal of Public Health,
online April 20, 2017.
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
