In a front-page story, the Wall Street Journal (4/28, A1, Martinez) reports that many “[h]ospitals are adopting a policy to improve their finances: making medical care contingent on upfront payments.” According to the American Hospital Association, “[u]ncompensated care cost the hospital industry $31.2 billion in 2006, up 44 percent from $21.6 billion in 2000.” Meanwhile, approximately “77 percent of nonprofit hospitals are in the black, compared with 61 percent of for-profit hospitals,” data from the American Hospital Directory indicate.
Hospitals claim that the figures are “driven by a larger number of Americans who are uninsured,” or underinsured, and that “among those with adequate insurance, deductibles and co-payments are growing so big that” even some “insured patients also have trouble paying hospitals.” The Journal notes that even though federal law “requires hospitals to treat emergencies, such as heart attacks or injuries from accidents,” that “law doesn’t cover conditions that aren’t immediately life-threatening.”
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