Hospitals' uncompensated care costs, which include unpaid medical bills and charity care expenses,... [+]
Amid a still soft economy and high unemployment, hospitals uncompensated care costs -- medical care for which no payment is received -- jumped nearly five percent to $41.1 billion in 2011, according to a new report from the American Hospital Association.
The 2012 report comes even as the number of hospitals fell slightly to 4,973 in 2011 from 4,985 in 2010 amid ongoing mergers, sales, closures and related consolidation. Their uncompensated care costs, which include charity care and other expenses they eat when patients cannot pay their bills, increased to $41.1 billion from $39.3 billion in 2010. The costs have nearly doubled since 2000, the AHA report said.
Hospitals will eventually see their costs of uncompensated care fall when broader health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act kicks in next year. In January 2014, private insurance companies like UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), Humana (HUM), Cigna (CI) and a host of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans will be providing subsidized coverage to individuals and small businesses via state or federally-regulated exchanges established under the health law. In addition, most states will be participating in expansions of the Medicaid health insurance programs for the poor.
But hospitals fear a continued jump in uncompensated care costs this year, with Congress and the White House poised to cut entitlement spending in the wake of the fiscal cliff that already saw hospitals wrestle with spending reductions.
"As lawmakers and the president turn to the challenges of sequestration and the debt ceiling, we urge them to make health care for vulnerable people the highest priority and to reject proposals that might strain the nation's fragile safety net,” Dr. Bruce Siegel, president and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems said in a statement last week. “Hospitals that care for large numbers of Medicaid and other low-income patients already have contributed significantly to federal health care savings, and will continue to do their part to improve quality and efficiency. But more federal spending cuts only will harm access to care and shift costs to state and local governments and taxpayers.”
