Uncompensated Care

Uncompensated care refers to health care provided for which no payment was received from the patient or insurer. Much of this comes from people who do not have health insurance and cannot afford to pay.

♦ Some caution should be used when reading numbers put forth by groups like the American Hospital Association. Their reported numbers may not reflect actual costs but rather expected revenue, which of course includes profits.

• Before defaulting on a large hospital bill first call and ask them to discount. They can charge you less, write off the rest on their taxes and still come out ahead.

The Affordable Care Act was passed with the intention of reducing the number of uninsured people. Uncompensated care was expected to greatly go down with the expansion of Medicaid.

Unfortunately, many states refused to expand Medicaid throwing this plan out of align.

♦ Many rural hospitals are in serious financial trouble because of the disproportionate number of uninsured people they must treat. There is a great fear that politicians are going to make their situation worse rather than better.

• Uncompensated care could grow by $1.1 trillion between 2019 and 2028 according to the Urban Institute if Republican lawmakers repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).