Iowa Hospitals Provided $1.05B in Uncompensated Care in 2012

Iowa hospitals provided $1.05 billion in uncompensated care in 2012, a 10.1 percent increase from 2011, according to an Iowa Hospital Association report.

The 118 hospitals provided $641 million in charity care and wrote off $405 million in bad debt expenses, according to the report. Medicare and Medicaid losses totaled $289 million for the hospitals surveyed. These programs account for approximately 60 percent of Iowa hospitals' total revenue.

Uncompensated care has been increasing relative to hospital revenue in Iowa, according to the report. The 2012 amount accounts for 14 percent of net patient revenues last year, up from 9.9 percent in 2007.

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