The policy journal Health Affairs has published a new study that found that hospitals provide 60 percent of all the uncompensated care in America.
Hospitals in the 340B program provide a hefty chunk of this benefit. The American Hospital Association recently reported that 340B hospitals account for around 60 percent of the uncompensated care that hospitals provide. That works out to $28.6 billion a year.
The Health Affairs study didn’t say what percentage of uncompensated care comes from private cancer doctors. Their trade group, Community Oncology Alliance, is one of the 340B program’s chief faultfinders. The study did find that the larger category of “office-based physicians,” to which private cancer docs belong, accounted for just 14 percent of uncompensated care. That’s less than one-fourth of what hospitals provide.
Remember, private practitioners have the luxury of sending poor and uninsured patients to nearby safety-net hospitals for care – and most do.