AHA defines uncompensated care as the combination of a hospital’s bad debt and charity. Bad debt consists of services for which hospitals expected to receive payment but did not, whereas as charity care is free care for which hospitals did not expect to receive payment.
Uncompensated care totals from 2011 did not include underpayments from Medicare or Medicaid. The $41.1 billion figure represented 5.9 percent of total hospital expenses. In comparison, hospitals recorded $39.3 billion in uncompensated care in 2010, or 5.8 percent of all expenses.
More Articles on Hospitals and Uncompensated Care:
Study: Hospitals in States With No Medicaid Expansion Face Financial Crisis
Missouri Hospitals Provided $1.1B in Uncompensated Care in 2011
Western Pennsylvania Hospitals Face “Great Financial Stress”
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