Tip: Discounts to uninsured or underinsured patients
Compliance Monitor, November 7, 2007
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Hospitals may discount services to uninsured and underinsured patients who are unable to pay their hospital bills. The OIG offers the following guidance for providing discounts:
- Hospitals should reflect full uniform charges on the Medicare cost report and inform the FI that it has reported its full charges
- Hospitals can forgo collection efforts aimed at a Medicare patient if the hospital documents that the patient is indigent or medically indigent
- Hospitals may claim discounted amounts as Medicare bad debt after determining that no source other than the patient is legally responsible for the unpaid deductibles and coinsurance
- Hospitals can determine their own indigent-care criteria if they uniformly apply it to Medicare and non-Medicare patients
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