By NextBestFitHospital uncompensated care and charity care policies
endsYear 4Provider payment & regulation
Today
Hospitals provide tens of billions of dollars a year in charity care and absorb bad debt.
Under the plan
Charity care and bad debt for covered services disappear; hospital financial-assistance policies apply only to non-covered items.
Trade-off
Hospitals stop absorbing these losses; the community-benefit justification for tax exemption weakens.