New Medicare and Medicaid Data Have Been Reported by J. Stensland and Co-Authors (Contrary To Popular Belief, Medicaid Hospital Admissions Are Often…

New Medicare and Medicaid Data Have Been Reported by J. Stensland and Co-Authors (Contrary To Popular Belief, Medicaid Hospital Admissions Are Often Profitable Because Of Additional Medicare Payments)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- A new study on Medicare and Medicaid is now available. According to news originating from Washington, District of Columbia, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "It is generally believed that most hospitals lose money on Medicaid admissions. The data suggest otherwise."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "Medicaid admissions are often profitable for hospitals because of payments from both the Medicaid program and the Medicare program, including payments for uncompensated care and from the Medicare disproportionate-share hospital program. On average, adding a single Medicaid patient day in fiscal year 2017 will increase most hospitals' Medicare payments by more than $300. When added to Medicaid payments, these payments often cause Medicaid patients to be profitable for hospitals. In contrast, adding a single charity care day in the same year will decrease overall Medicare payments by about $20 on average. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced a proposal to shift some Medicare payments from supporting hospitals' costs for Medicaid patients to directly supporting their costs for uncompensated care."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "If that proposal is adopted, hospitals' profits on Medicaid patients would decrease, but their losses on care for the uninsured would be reduced."

For more information on this research see: Contrary To Popular Belief, Medicaid Hospital Admissions Are Often Profitable Because Of Additional Medicare Payments. Health Affairs, 2016;35(12):2282-2288. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from J. Stensland, MedPAC, Washington, DC 20001, United States. Additional authors for this research include Z.R. Gaumer and M.E. Miller.

Keywords for this news article include: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America, Medicare and Medicaid, Health Policy, Medicare, Medicaid, Hospital.

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