If you don’t have health insurance, or your insurance coverage still leaves you with big bills, hospitals are supposed to let you know if you qualify for free or reduced-price care, and to charge you fairly even if you don’t. That is, they should do those things if they want to keep their tax-free nonprofit status under the Section 501(r) rules of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
But a study from the University of Michigan (U-M) Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI) and reported in The New England Journal of Medicine found that many nonprofit hospitals have room to improve. IHPI postdoctoral fellow Sayeh Nikpay, PhD, MPH, and IHPI Director John Z. Ayanian, MD, MPP, called hospitals’ performance “far from perfect.”
“So far, it appears many [hospitals] aren’t complying with the part of the rules that could increase their charity care,” said Nikpay.
As more Americans enroll in insurance plans with high deductibles, they may need to ask for financial relief after a hospital stay. Even a single person earning $40,000 a year or a family of four with an income of $80,000 might qualify.
This article was adapted from information provided by the U-M Health System.
