Uncompensated Healthcare Within the Greater San Antonio Hospital Council Membership: An Educational Package & Case Study.

摘要

For the past several years the United States has experienced a robust economy that has created wealth and prosperity for many companies and individuals. However, the health care industry is faced with the growing problem of increased uncompensated care for their services. At the same time there is growing concern over the increase in the uninsured population in the United States. Texas is the nation's leader in uninsured persons with an estimated 24 percent uninsured in 1998. Furthermore, there are an estimated 600,000 Medicaid eligible persons in Texas that are not enrolled in the program. The Greater San Antonio Hospital Council is a trade organization that has membership in 27 counties in Southwest Texas. As with Texas as a whole, 24 percent of the Hospital Council geographic membership population is uninsured. As a result of the high uninsured population and other less dominant factors, membership experienced over $503 million in uncompensated care for 1997. This project focused on two Hospital Council members. One hospital was a rural not-for-profit county hospital and one was an urban not-for-profit county hospital, each with a mission to care for the indigent population in its service area.