WMC ‘uncompensated care’ on the rise
Published: 2009-12-29 08:02:16By: Carol Crump | Casper Journal | December 23, 2009
In March 2008, Wyoming Medical Center anticipated
uncompensated care at the regional hospital would top $30 million by
the end of the fiscal year the following June. In December 2009,
uncompensated care is more than $40 million and still climbing.
“We’re
on the path to $51 million in fiscal year 2010,” the hospital’s chief
financial officer Nancy Brandt said in a series of presentations to the
Natrona County Commissioners and the hospital’s board of trustees and
board of directors.
The
hospital’s uncompensated care is a combination of direct charity care
and bad debt. In 2009, the gross charges for total services were $342
million. All of the uncompensated care comes off the bottom line of the
hospital.
Bad debt is the amount of charges patients don’t pay,
even though they have a legal obligation to do so. The common
misconception is that the rising amount of bad debt, which was $26.5
million at year end, comes from people who could pay and just choose
not to do so.
According to Brandt, most bad debts come from those
who would qualify for charity care if they provided the necessary
information.
The hospital uses federal poverty guidelines to
determine charity care. Most of the time, those with no insurance or
federal payer, such as Medicaid, would have qualified for charity care
if they applied, Brandt said.
Under
the WMC charity policy that was revised three years ago, those
individuals or families with incomes at or under 200 percent of the
federal guidelines could qualify for full forgiveness of the cost of
their care.
Even those with incomes between 200 percent and 275
percent of the federal guidelines can have their services discounted up
to 50 percent.
The direct charity care the hospital provided through December was $13.5 million. WMC is required to provide charity care for prisoners in the county jail and community members as part of its lease agreement with Natrona County. The county does reimburses WMC for prisoner care n $120,000 per year under terms of the 1995 lease.
WMC serves Natrona County’s citizens “first and foremost,” and 62.6 percent of the hospital’s gross charges are for county residents, Brandt said. The home county’s residents also are responsible for $26 million, 65 percent, of uncompensated care, including $1.4 million in trauma care.
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