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HCA to Offer Discounts to Uninsured

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 March 2003, 06:00 CST

HCA to Offer Discounts to Uninsured

Source: Associated Press Health News

HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, on Tuesday announced plans to create discounts for low-income uninsured patients and to provide more financial relief for charity care patients.

"The plight of the uninsured is a national problem reaching staggering proportions, and we have been working for some time on a plan that would better serve the needs of those patients," Jack Bovender, chairman and CEO of the Nashville-based company, said in a written statement.

Last week, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said about 75 million Americans lacked health insurance at some point during 2001 or 2002, a number that continues to climb as the economy worsens.

Under HCA's proposal, there would be a sliding scale of discounts for uninsured patients with incomes between 200 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level.

Patients at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level would receive free care. The company said 70 percent of its hospitals have already been using that standard.

The polices will be implemented only if the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rule they would not diminish the company's Medicare payments, Bovender said.

K.B. Forbes, founder of an advocacy group that has been pushing hospital chains to improve their policies for uninsured patients, called HCA's proposal "worthless fluff that reaffirms HCA's practice to discriminate against uninsured patients by forcing them to pay full sticker price."

Typically, only the working poor are charged full retail prices by hospitals. Big health plans can bargain for discounts for patients they insure and the federal government covers the poorest and elderly Americans.

Forbes said Tenet Healthcare Corp., the nation's second-largest hospital chain, agreed to charge managed care rates to all uninsured patients, regardless of their income level. Forbes' Los Angeles-based Consejos de Latinos Unidos had sued Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Tenet, accusing the company of price-gouging Latino patients.

Forbes says all uninsured patients should be charged "a reasonable rate, either Medicare plus a percentage or the best negotiated managed care rate."

For patients who cannot pay for their care, Forbes said hospitals should set up reasonable payment plans, avoid litigation until all state and federal financial assistance programs are exhausted, and that there should be no liens on homes that are a family's sole asset.

HCA plans to prohibit liens on primary homes worth less than $300,000 or garnishment of a patient's wages if they have a proven inability to pay their bills.

Bovender said the company's hospitals work with patients to enroll them in Medicaid and other programs, and to structure payment plans when appropriate.

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On the Net:

HCA: http://www.hcahealthcare.com

Tenet: http://www.tenethealth.com/

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