• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Hospitals can provide discounts to uninsured

Compliance Monitor, February 25, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Compliance Monitor!

The Bush administration is encouraging hospitals to give discounts to uninsured patients and Medicare beneficiaries.

Dara Corrigan, acting principal deputy inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, said hospitals could reduce or eliminate copayments and deductibles that would create financial difficulty for Medicare beneficiaries, according to a February 20 story in The New York Times.

Hospitals can define "financial need" based on the local cost of living and the beneficiary's income, assets, and medical bills, Corrigan said in the Times story. But, she added, the hospital's criteria should be applied uniformly to all patients.

Hospitals can't offer discounts "as part of any advertisement or solicitation" with the goal of attracting Medicare patients or to generate business payable by Medicare or other federal health programs, Corrigan said.

The discounts are permissible under federal fraud and abuse laws. To help clarify the issue, the Office of the Inspector General issued further guidance. To access the document, click here .

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, explained the administration's position in a letter to the American Hospital Association in the Times story.

"Hospitals can provide discounts to uninsured and underinsured patients who cannot afford their hospital bills and to Medicare beneficiaries who cannot afford their Medicare cost-sharing obligations," Thompson said. "Nothing in the Medicare rules or regulations prohibits such discounts."

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Compliance Monitor!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive