Quote:
Originally Posted by Lew Silverman
(Private, FOR PROFIT institutions may not have the same requirements).
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Actually, for profit hospitals are no different. If a hospital has an ER, it is subject to EMTALA. I spent 15 years working for one of the largest for-profit healthcare corporations in the country, and another two years working for a smaller for-profit.
What a lot of people don't realize is that they have been paying for healthcare for uninsured people for decades. When hospitals are not paid for the care they provide to uninsured people, the hospitals make up that money in three ways. 1) The cost of that care is added to the cost of care for people with insurance. 2) Hospitals get reimbursed by states for that care with tax dollars, and 3) For-profit hospitals deduct the cost of unreimbursed care in their corporate tax returns.
At one of our hospitals in South Carolina, about 40% of bills were not paid prior to the ACA. After the ACA went into effect, that number dropped to 10-12%.