Some hospitals are finding that offering free, continuing basic care to uninsured patients with chronic conditions can save on healthcare costs, reports The New York Times. The Seton Family of Hospitals in Austin, Texas, for example, uses both its revenue and donations to fund nearly free care for almost 5,000 patients in the belief that providing regular care for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes is less costly than paying for patients’ frequent trips to the emergency department. The Catholic hospital system not only identifies patients who are frequently in the ED or hospitalized, but also those who have incomes just above the threshold for charity care or those outside the county, and provides them free care. The intervention saved $475,000 in hospitalizations in one year for 631 asthma patients alone.
