Source: New York Times | According to a new study by the Community Service Society, New York hospitals divvy up an annual $1 billion-plus pot from New York’s Indigent Care Pool, but they largely ignore legal mandates to provide relief to patients who cannot afford their oversized hospital bills. Incredibly, some hospitals receive millions from the charity care pool without disbursing a dollar of aid.
The law in place demands that hospitals provide aid for patients with income up to 300 percent of the poverty level. Hospitals may pursue judgments and liens, but must first offer aid applications with assistance for completing them, and not seek payment while the application is pending.
Greater New York Hospital Association trade group executive David Rich acknowledges “there’s a law in place,” but defends the nobility of his group’s members, saying that “hospitals are providing a lot of charity care at a loss.”
New York Department of Health spokesman Michael Moran announced that a panel of patient advocates and hospital administrators is convening to improve application of the law. He stated that the department is in the middle of “a comprehensive data integrity project that will include the retention of an outside auditor.”
Value is the only commonality in an increasingly complex, challenging and interdependent world.