Hospital Help for Poor is Lacking: Albany Medical Center, Glens Falls Facilities Receive Fs for Financial Assistance Programs
By Cathleen F. Crowley, Albany Times Union, N.Y.
Mar. 22–ALBANY — Capital Region hospitals as a whole failed on a statewide report card that rated their financial assistance programs for low-income and uninsured patients.
Albany Medical Center and Glens Falls hospitals both received Fs, while the highest mark in the Capital Region was a B given St. Mary’s Seton Health in Troy. St. Peter’s, Ellis and Albany Memorial Hospitals received Cs.
The Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, which is the research arm of Citizen Action of New York, a public advocacy group, released its study Friday. The purpose of the report card was to judge hospitals’ compliance with a new state law enacted in April 2006.
The law requires hospitals to give discounts to low-income and uninsured patients and inform patients about financial assistance programs. It also restricts how aggressively collection agencies can pursue unpaid hospital bills. Thirty-four hospitals received an A or B.
“While hospitals are continuing to collect $847 million in taxpayer dollars to provide financial assistance to those patients who need it most, patients are still not being provided the legally required protections from aggressive collections policies,” said Richard Kirsch, executive director of Citizen Action.
On the positive side, Citizen Action found that 43 percent of hospitals offer better discounts than required by law. Those hospitals include St. Peter’s and St. Clare’s.
Capital Region hospitals performed badly in several areas. All failed to inform patients installment plans are available and failed to document the rules collection agencies must follow, the report said. Several hospitals, including Albany Med, Ellis and Glens Falls Hospitals, did not tell patients they can appeal decisions that limit or deny discounts, according to Citizen Action.
Hospitals are not permitted to consider retirement accounts, college savings accounts or a patient’s primary home when calculating eligibility for discounts. Albany Med received an F in the eligibility category, which means it either counts assets it shouldn’t or the hospital’s written policies don’t clearly state excluded assets, Citizen Action said.
Albany Med officials said they can’t comprehend how Citizen Action gave the hospital an F and wondered if the advocacy group did not receive all of the hospital’s documentation.
“The Albany Medical Center provides more charity care and more uncompensated care than any hospital in Northeastern New York,” said Greg McGarry, hospital spokesman. “It’s part of our mission and we are deeply offended and outraged at a characterization that we don’t do charity care well.”
Hospital officials offered to meet with Citizen Action to review the hospital’s policies that resulted in $35 million of charity care last year.
Glens Falls Hospital provided $11 million in charity care in 2007 and officials there were surprised by the failing mark. Raymond Agnew, spokesman for the hospital, said communicating payment alternatives to patients is a priority.
Citizen Action generated the report card based on information hospitals submitted to the state Department of Health. Citizen Action received the documents in the fall of 2007 after filing a request under the Freedom of Information Law. The study graded 97 of the state’s largest hospitals.
Saratoga Hospital did not submit any information by the state deadline, so Citizen Action gave the hospital an F. The hospital has since filed the documentation.
Citizen Action called for the state to enforce the law and for legislators to link the state’s $847 million Indigent Care Pool to the actual number of uninsured people served by a hospital. The DOH supports the change. Currently, the money is distributed by a complicated formula not directly linked to patient load.
The DOH said it has reviewed the hospitals’ documentation and will be issuing more guidelines to the hospitals, said DOH spokesman Jeffrey Hammond. F. Crowley can be reached at 454-5348, or by e-mail at ccrowley@timesunion.com.
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