The burden of uncompensated care grows

It is not surprising that costs for uncompensated care are rising dramatically for most hospitals. What generally has not been understood is that uncompensated care costs are rising faster than overall hospital costs, and government subsidies are failing to keep pace. In addition, the unpaid care problem no longer is being shouldered by one specific group. The facilities seeing the greatest increases in expenditures are those not traditionally associated with uncompensated care--small, non-teaching, non-disproportionate care, and suburban hospitals. Finally, a hospital's commitment to care for the uninsured cannot be predicted by any common classification. This information emerged from an analysis conducted by the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission in an effort to develop a basis for devising options to address the uncompensated care problem.