Health Equity Ratings of US Burn Centers-Does For-Profit Status Matter?

Achieving health equity is forefront in national discussions on health care structuring. Burn injuries transcend racial and socioeconomic boundaries. Burn center funding ranges from safety-net to for-profit without an understanding of how funding mechanisms translate into equity outcomes. We hypothesized that health equity would be highest at safety-net facilities and lowest at for-profit centers. All verified and non-verified American Burn Association burn centers were collated in 2022. Safety-net status, for-profit status, and health equity rating were extracted from national datasets. Equity ratings were compared across national burn centers and significance was determined with comparative statistics and ordinal logistic regression. On an equity grade of A to D (A is the best), 27.6% of centers were rated A, 27.6% rated B, 41.5% rated C, and 3.3% rated D. 17.1% of all burn centers were designated as for-profit compared to 21.1% of centers that were safety-net. 73.1% of safety-net centers scored an A rating, and 14.3% of for-profit centers scored an A rating. Safety-net centers were 21.8 times more likely (p<0.001) to have the highest equity score compared to non-safety-net centers. There was an 80% decrease in the odds of having a rating of A for for-profit centers compared to non-profit centers (p=0.04). Safety-net centers had the highest equity ratings while for-profit burn centers scored the lowest. For-profit funding mechanisms may lead to the delivery of less equitable burn care. Burn centers should focus on health equity in the triage and management of their patients.