Some hospital systems scaling back charity care

Several hospital systems around the country are scaling back assistance for lower-income patients who lack health coverage, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile, some safety-net hospitals report that the number of uninsured patients they serve is decreasing because of the health law.

The New York Times: Hospitals Look To Health Law, Cutting Charity
Hospital systems around the country have started scaling back financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people without health insurance, hoping to push them into signing up for coverage through the new online marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act. The trend is troubling to advocates for the uninsured, who say raising fees will inevitably cause some to skip care rather than buy insurance that they consider unaffordable (Goodnough, 5/25).

Kaiser Health News: Safety Net Hospitals Already Seeing More Paying Patients -- And Revenue
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the health law's expansion of coverage to more than 13 million people this year has been the nation's safety-net hospitals, which treat a disproportionate share of poor and uninsured people and therefore face billions of dollars in unpaid bills. Such facilities had expected to see a drop in uninsured patients seeking treatment, but the change has been faster and deeper than most anticipated -- at least in the 25 states that expanded Medicaid in January, according to interviews with safety-net hospital officials across the country (Galewitz, 5/27).