The study looked at 181 hospitals that participate in New York’s Indigent Care Pool program, which allocates roughly $1.2 billion in state and federal money to hospitals to offset the costs of providing uncompensated care. The ICP is derived from surcharges on hospital patient bills.
In order to receive ICP funds, hospitals must abide by several rules, including the Hospital Financial Assistance Law, which requires hospitals to adopt written financial assistance policies, make that information readily available and offer financial assistance to eligible patients, according to the report.
Out of the 181 hospitals that provided financial aid applications for the ICP, 120 violated the ICP’s requirements, failed to comply with state Department of Health guidance or imposed additional barriers for patients to access hospital financial assistance. Those 120 hospitals received $463.7 million in ICP payments in 2010.
Of those 120 hospitals that fell outside of ICP’s requirements, a majority (102) did not comply with the basic tenets of the HFAL. Based on the findings, the authors of the study recommended the state should improve transparency of hospital ICP payments and improve the patient access to hospital-based financial assistance.
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