Fair pricing law prompts most california hospitals to adopt policies to protect uninsured patients from high charges

摘要

Millions of uninsured Americans rely on hospital emergency departments (EDs) for medical care. Throughout the United States, uninsured patients treated in or admitted to thehospital through the ED receive hospital bills based on what hospitals call "billed charges." These charges are much higher than those paid by insured patients. In 2006California approved "fair pricing" legislation to protect uninsured patients from having to pay full billed charges. We found that by 2011 most California hospitals hadresponded to the law by adopting financial assistance policies to make care more affordable for the state's6.8 million uninsured people. Ninety-seven percent of California hospitals reported that they offered free care to uninsured patients with incomes at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level. California's approach offers a promising policy option to other states seeking to protect the uninsured from receiving bills based on full billed charges.