Medicare Blog

why is the unreimbursed cost of medicare most often not included as an element of community benefit

by Jennifer Johnston Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago

Full Answer

What does community benefit mean?

Community benefits are programs or activities that provide treatment and/or promote health and healing as a response to community needs; they are not provided for marketing purposes.

Why is uncompensated care problematic?

Uncompensated care costs occur because, although people who are uninsured use less care than people with coverage, most who are uninsured have limited income or resources and cannot afford the high cost of medical care, if and when they do need or use health care.

What is the definition of uncompensated care?

Uncompensated care is an overall measure of hospital care provided for which no payment was received from the patient or insurer. It is the sum of a hospital's bad debt and the financial assistance it provides.

Is the Affordable Care Act an effective mechanism for reducing the burden of uncompensated care?

Conclusion. Our analysis suggests that the Medicaid expansion has met the ACA goal of reducing uncompensated care burdens for hospitals. For each additional dollar spent on hospital services for Medicaid patients in expansion states, hospitals enjoyed an approximate 41-cent reduction in uncompensated care costs.

What impact do the uninsured have on costs and quality related to healthcare provision?

Costs Borne by the Uninsured Often it means receiving poor-quality care. The uninsured are less likely than the in- sured to have a regular source of care, less likely to receive preventive care, and less likely to benefit from early detection of medical problems.

How do charity care and bad debt differ in both definition and how they are treated on financial statements?

Charity care is care for which hospitals never expected to be reimbursed. A hospital incurs bad debt when it cannot obtain reimbursement for care provided; this happens when patients are unable to pay their bills, but do not apply for charity care, or are unwilling to pay their bills.

Are not compensated meaning?

1 : not providing or provided with monetary compensation : not paid or compensated uncompensated medical care/costs uncompensated workers … many thousands of our countrymen devote their rosy prime to the harsh and uncompensated work of writing poetry …— Marilynne Robinson.

How do uninsured patients affect the economy?

One study found that workers who were uninsured missed almost five more days of work each year than those who had insurance. Health-related productivity losses are estimated to reduce U.S. economic output by $260 billion per year.

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