January 29, 2015—U.S. hospitals provided $46.4 billion in uncompensated care in 2013, $500 million more than in 2012, the American Hospital Association reports. [ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
The new data come from the AHA’s latest Annual Survey of Hospitals. The figure includes charity care and bad debt but excludes Medicaid and Medicare underpayment. The group reported separately that combined underpayments to hospitals for Medicare and Medicaid were $51 billion in 2013 ($37.9 billion for Medicare and $13.2 billion for Medicaid).
The AHA said that 5.9 percent of hospital expenses in 2013 were for uncompensated care, a slight dip from 6.1 percent the year before. The group has previously reported that hospitals participating in the 340B program provide 66 percent of all uncompensated hospital care in America.
The Obama administration predicts that, as a result of health coverage expansion through both Medicaid and the health insurance marketplaces, hospitals uncompensated care costs will be $5.7 billion lower in 2014 than they otherwise would have been. Some health care advocates are concerned that expansion of private insurance coverage across much of the country may be in jeopardy if the U.S. Supreme Court rules this spring that the Affordable Care Act was intended to provide subsidies for the purchase of insurance only in states that set up their own insurance exchanges. The Republican leaders of the U.S. House and Senate, meanwhile, have said that their caucuses remain committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with a less expensive and more efficient alternative. [/ms-protect-content]