Editor's Capsule Summary
What is already known on this topic
Patients are transferred for many reasons, including subspecialist availability, patient preference, and disease severity.
What question this study addressed
The relation between insurance status and the likelihood of transfer from an emergency department in a nationally representative weighted sample.
What this study adds to our knowledge
Uninsured and Medicaid patients are transferred more frequently than privately insured patients with the same conditions.
How this is relevant to clinical practice
Should these disparities in transfer rates be shown to cause differential outcomes, this would be yet another example of inequities in our health care system.