Uncompensated care costs in U.S. reduced by estimated $7.4B in ’14

PROVIDENCE – The federal Department of Health and Human Services has announced that as a result of marketplace coverage and Medicaid expansion through the Affordable Care Act, hospital uncompensated care costs were reduced by an estimated $7.4 billion last year, to $27.3 billion.
The federal department released the data on the five-year anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, and said that based on this analysis, the 28 Medicaid expansion states, which include Rhode Island and Massachusetts, as well as Washington, D.C., account for an estimated $5 billion of that reduction.
Uncompensated care is the reimbursed cost of care provided by hospitals to people who are uninsured or underinsured.
Hospitals provided more than $50 million in uncompensated care in 2013.
The agency said that it is projecting that uncompensated care costs will continue to fall substantially following major insurance coverage expansions, including Medicaid and the Health Insurance Marketplace.
The Affordable Care Act allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to adults up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, including parents and childless adults. The federal government covers 100 percent of the Medicaid expansion population until 2016 and the federal matching rate will decrease over time to 90 percent by 2020.
The agency said expanding Medicaid will benefit states directly and indirectly by generating additional federal revenue, increasing jobs and earnings, increasing gross state product, increasing state and local revenue, and reducing uncompensated care and hospital costs.
While data was not available specifically for Rhode Island or Massachusetts, information was included for other states, including Kentucky, which was the first state to release a post-expansion study with updated estimates on the impact of its Medicaid expansion. Kentucky said the estimated economic contribution is projected to be $30.1 billion from 2014 to 2021.

The report also said that there will be a net positive impact on their state budget of $919.1 million and job growth of 12,000 jobs in fiscal year 2014 and 40,000 jobs from fiscal year 2014 to 2021, for Kentucky.

No posts to display