Hospitals consider limiting charity care for patients who decline health coverage

Hosptials across the country are considering scaling back charity care for patients who could have signed up for coverage but did not (Source: “Hospitals Reconsider Charity For Patients Who Decline Health Coverage,” Washington Post via Kaiser Health News, Aug. 18, 2014).

The move is prompted by concerns that offering free or discounted care to low-income uninsured patients might dissuade them from getting government-subsidized coverage. 

Most hospitals are still wrestling with this issue, but a few have gone ahead and changed their programs. The online charity care policy at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, for example, now states that “applicants who refuse to purchase federally-mandated health insurance when they are eligible to do so will not be awarded charitable care.”