Hosps Can Provide Discounts to Uninsured and Needy Patients [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:


Hospitals Can Provide Discounts to Uninsured and Needy Patients, Bush Administration Says
By ROBERT PEAR

Published: February 20, 2004

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 — The Bush administration encouraged hospitals on Thursday to give discounts to uninsured patients and to financially needy Medicare beneficiaries.

Such discounts are permissible under federal fraud and abuse laws, the government said, in a clarification requested by the hospital industry.

Hospitals have been criticized in the last two years for charging uninsured people much more than they charge people with employer-sponsored health insurance. Group health plans often negotiate rates lower than the prices charged to people without insurance....


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More than 43 million Americans, including nearly one-third of Hispanics, are uninsured....

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Melinda R. Hatton, vice president of the American Hospital Association, said the guidelines did not go far enough. "It's still not entirely clear what hospitals can do to help the working poor," Ms. Hatton said. "How much of a discount can they give to a family of four with income of more than $37,000 a year?"

The new guidelines are a bit stricter for Medicare beneficiaries than for uninsured patients.


more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/politics/20INSU.html