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State Hospital Rates to Increase

Posted on: Friday, 30 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

Patients admitted to three West Virginia hospitals will pay more for treatment once those facilities enact rate increases approved by the state Health Care Authority this week.

The HCA regulates West Virginia's hospitals.

At Thomas Memorial in South Charleston, patients not on a government program will no longer pay an average $10,116, but instead $10,260, slightly less than the $10,597 Thomas wanted to charge.

According to HCA documents, the authority punished Thomas for charging on average about $600 more than allowed during the past fiscal year.

Last year, the average rate was set at $9,514, not $10,116.

For outpatients, the hospital requested to increase the rate from $568 to $595; the board approved. Last year, an outpatient rate of $538 was approved, but Thomas charged about $30 more on average. The hospital cited an increase in expensive procedures.

St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington gave the same explanation for charging an average $645 per outpatient, around $50 more than the amount approved in 2004.

The HCA allowed the hospital to increase outpatient charges from $645 to $680 during the next fiscal year.

Admitted patients will pay an average $16,304 per visit, instead of $15,800. The hospital requested a charge of $16,670, but was also punished for charging inpatients around $1,600 more than the average the HCA approved last year.

St. Joseph's Hospital in Buckhannon will charge $7,387 for the average inpatient, an increase from the prior $6,975.

The new rate is about $7 less than what St. Joseph's had requested; in the last year, the hospital did not charge patients beyond the HCA's approved rate.

Like the others, it charged outpatients more per visit than the HCA permitted: $437 instead of $406. Again, an increase in high- cost procedures was the given reason.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

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