Humanitarian Healthcare at Mexico US Border Shows Value

HUMANITARIAN healthcare at the Mexico US border delivered primary care valued at $39.18 per clinical encounter.

Researchers evaluated 23,339 clinical encounters involving 13,963 unique patients treated in humanitarian clinics in Matamoros and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, between 2020 and 2022. The sample represented 58.0% of the medical services delivered by the humanitarian organization in the region during the study period. Patients had a median age of 30 years and 59.5% were female.

Clinical records were assigned Current Procedural Terminology codes and mapped to 2020 Texas Medicaid reimbursement rates to estimate the economic value of care. A separate analysis using a Mexican public health fee schedule produced a similar estimate, differing by only 4.4%.

Primary Care Accounts for Most Clinical Value

Office visits represented the largest share of humanitarian healthcare services. The most frequently assigned code was an office visit with history, accounting for 43.9% of encounters overall.

Evaluation and management services accounted for 95.4% of the estimated value of care. Across the analyzed encounters, the cumulative estimated value reached $914,538, equivalent to $39.18 per encounter.

Procedural care also contributed to the services delivered. Obstetric ultrasound was the most common procedure, documented during 341 encounters, or 1.5% of the sample. Vaccination, medication administration, pregnancy testing, and other ultrasound services were also provided. Children aged 6 to 17 years had the highest estimated value per encounter, at $43.19.

Clinical Services Differed Between Border Sites

The estimated value of care differed substantially by location. Matamoros accounted for 33.7% of clinical volume but 44.0% of the sample’s estimated economic value, with care valued at $51.17 per encounter compared with $33.10 in Reynosa. Greater use of procedures, particularly obstetric ultrasound, contributed to this difference.

The researchers noted that these estimates likely understate the full value of humanitarian healthcare because medication costs, volunteer labor, operational expenses, undocumented services, and care delivered after referral were not captured. They concluded that standardized clinical coding could offer a practical way to quantify humanitarian medical services and support future evaluation of healthcare delivery for displaced populations.

Reference
Draugelis S et al. Complexity and economic value of care provided in humanitarian relief clinics for displaced persons at the Mexico-US border, 2020-2022. Value Health Reg Issues. 2026;DOI:10.1016/j.vhri.2026.101685.

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