Objective: Deformational Plagiocephaly (DP) is commonly treated with cranial orthosis, or helmet therapy. A large, national study on the impact of insurance status on helmet outcomes is lacking. We assessed treatment outcomes for helmet therapy based on insurance status.
Design: This was a retrospective data analysis of patients referred to Cranial Technologies, Inc for helmet therapy between 2014-2020 across 21 states.
Patients, participants: There were a total of 211,417 patients referred for helmeting, of whom 141,513 received helmet therapy.
Main outcomes measures: Multivariate regression was used to assess the relationship of insurance status with post-treatment residual flattening, measured by cephalic index (CI) and cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI), and treating provider rating of success.
Results: Patients with Medicaid were more likely to complete treatment with residual flattening measured by CI and CVAI when compared to patients with private insurance (OR: 1.58, CI: 1.51-1.65, p < 0.001 and OR: 1.21, CI: 1.15-1.28, p < 0.001, respectively). Providers of patients with Medicaid were more likely to give a low rating of success following treatment (OR: 3.25, CI: 2.70-3.92, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Our study investigating the impact of insurance status on helmet therapy across 21 states found that patients with Medicaid were more likely to experience residual flattening and have lower provider-rated outcomes compared to those with commercial insurance. Given significant caregiver burden posed by helmet therapy, which requires frequent visits and consistent helmet use, caregivers of patients with Medicaid may require greater support to reduce outcome disparities observed here.
Keywords: craniofacial morphology; ethics/Health policies; infant orthopedics.