Hospitals may see uncompensated care costs rise by $53.3 billion by 2019 due to the Supreme Court's ruling on the Medicaid expansion within the healthcare reform law, according to a study from the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (pdf).
In June, the Supreme Court said the Medicaid expansion provision within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is optional for states, and states would not lose original Medicaid funding if they did not expand the program.
NAPH conducted a study to see how hospitals would be affected by this decision. Using data from the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. Census Bureau and the American Hospital Association, NAPH found hospitals would take on an additional $53.3 billion in uncompensated care by 2019. That amount coincides with roughly $14.1 billion in reductions to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments through the same time span.
"Congress certainly didn't foresee this level of uninsured and uncompensated care when it enacted the ACA," NAPH President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD said in the news release. "In this light, the deep cuts to disproportionate share hospital payments over the same period are simply untenable and will prove devastating to society's most vulnerable and to the providers who care for them."
In June, the Supreme Court said the Medicaid expansion provision within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is optional for states, and states would not lose original Medicaid funding if they did not expand the program.
NAPH conducted a study to see how hospitals would be affected by this decision. Using data from the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. Census Bureau and the American Hospital Association, NAPH found hospitals would take on an additional $53.3 billion in uncompensated care by 2019. That amount coincides with roughly $14.1 billion in reductions to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments through the same time span.
"Congress certainly didn't foresee this level of uninsured and uncompensated care when it enacted the ACA," NAPH President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD said in the news release. "In this light, the deep cuts to disproportionate share hospital payments over the same period are simply untenable and will prove devastating to society's most vulnerable and to the providers who care for them."
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