In states that have expanded their Medicaid programs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Medicaid proportion of patient volume has gone up, while self-pay patients and overall charity care have declined, according to a report from the Colorado Hospital Association.
The CHA collects monthly reported financial and volume data for hospitals across the country. The report is based on an analysis of data from 465 hospitals in 30 different states, 15 of which expanded Medicaid to people earning as much as 138 percent of the federal poverty level under the PPACA. Here are nine statistics on how Medicaid expansion and the decision not to expand affected hospital finances.
1. In the 15 expansion states, Medicaid charges rose from 15.3 percent of all charges in the first quarter of 2013 to 18.8 percent in the first quarter of this year.
2. Meanwhile, in non-expansion states, Medicaid charges remained unchanged year-over-year in the first quarter at 13.6 percent.
3. Self-pay charges in expansion states dropped from 4.7 percent of all charges in the first quarter of 2013 to 3.1 percent during the first three months of this year.
4. In the non-expansion states, self-pay charges rose slightly year-over-year during the first quarter, from 4.8 percent in 2013 to 5 percent this year.
5. The average amount of charity care provided per hospital in the expansion states also declined by about 32 percent, from $2.8 million in the first quarter of 2013 to $1.9 million during the first quarter of this year.
6. In non-expansion states, the average amount of charity care per hospital increased by nearly 11 percent, from $3.8 million during the first quarter of 2013 to $4.2 million during the first three months of this year.
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