Charity Care

Bad debt becomes a difficulty as patients with high-deductible health plans struggle to pay their bills.

Reporting charity care is an important means for healthcare organizations to communicate the benefits that they are providing to their communities.

What is the standard industry definition for bad debt percentage?

Can a hospital exclude a patient from the charity care if that patient is eligible for the exchange plans or Medicaid?

During this March 18 Forum networking webinar, three speakers shared how the expansion of Medicaid, the rollout of the insurance exchanges, and the increase in patient out-of-pocket expenses is causing hospitals and other providers to revisit their charity care policies.

 Q Our FI is currently disallowing our Medicare bad debts which we claimed and wrote off in accordance with our charity care policy. We believe our Medicare deductible copay amounts that we did not collect because the patient was indigent

If Medicaid contractualizes all or some of the amount deemed as coinsurance by Medicare, can the contractual amount be claimed as part of the bad debt on the cost report? Or, are we only able to claim the amount that Medicaid notes as being the copay or deductible on the cost report?

Formulas you can use as a guide to gauge uncompensated care costs within your organization.

Real-life spreadsheets, policies, and other resources that you can download and start using—today!