Title

Out-of-pocket expenditure among patients receiving plastic surgery care at an emergency department: A cross-sectional study

Authors

Surya Senthil¹, Sailesh I.S Kumar², Madhumitha Palaniappan³, Balaji Arumugam⁴, Shoraf Pascal⁵, M. Bhoovanachandaran^6,* & Shanmukha Koppolu⁷

Affiliation

¹Department of General Medicine, Saveetha Medical College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Thandalam, Tamil Nadu, India; ²Department of Surgery, Madras Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; ³Department of Pediatrics, Madha Medical college and research hospital, Tamil Nadu, India; ⁴Department of Community Medicine, Arunai Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India; ⁵Department of Community Medicine, Madha Medical College, Kovur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; ⁶Department of Community Medicine, St Peter's Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu, India; ⁷Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Barts NHS Trust, London, England, United Kingdom; *Corresponding author

Email

Surya Senthil - E-mail: suryasenthil101@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9585848939
Sailesh I.S Kumar - E-mail: sailesh.isk@gmail.com; Phone: +919486813072
Madhumitha Palaniappan - E-mail: jayanthicare955@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8122811756
Balaji Arumugam - E-mail: dr.a.balaji@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9840234857
Shoraf Pascal - E-mail: drshorafbaylon@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8056074632
M. Bhoovanachandran - E-mail: bhoovan2@gmail.com
Shanmukha Koppolu - E-mail: kshanmukha3@gmail.com; Phone: +447448304208

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received October 1, 2025; Revised October 31, 2025; Accepted October 31, 2025, Published October 31, 2025

Abstract

The out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses of 132 patients who sought plastic surgery care in an emergency department (ED) were evaluated. Financial stress was reported by a significant portion of patients due to the costs of urgent procedures, prescription medications and post-discharge care. Uninsured or underinsured patients have to deal with a much higher financial burden. The study highlights how better insurance coverage and cost transparency are necessary in emergency plastic surgery situations. Thus, we show the economic impact of acute treatment on patients' well-being.

Keywords

Financial strain, emergency room visits, plastic surgery, out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills and cross-sectional research.

Citation

Senthil et al. Bioinformation 21(10): 3632-3635 (2025)

Edited by

A Prashanth

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.