Hospitals belonging to the Minnesota Hospital Association provided $536 million in uncompensated care in 2015, a 5.3 percent increase since 2011, according to the organization’s 2016 Community Benefit Report.
The amount of uncompensated care provided by the hospitals decreased in 2015 compared to the year prior, as Minnesota hospitals recorded $589 million in uncompensated care in 2014. MHA attributed the year-over-year decrease to more residents gaining health insurance under the ACA.
The hospitals also saw a 7.6 percent year-over-year increase in the discrepancy between the cost to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients and federal reimbursements for that care in 2015, according to the report.