Uncompensated medical care in Louisiana: a survey of LSMS members

Physicians have traditionally taken into consideration the financial situations of their individual patients and frequently provide free and/or reduced-fee care to patients in need. An attempt was made to measure this free care in Louisiana through a survey of the active members of the LSMS. The questionnaire contained several sections designed to obtain general information about the physician's practice, care provided to uninsured and indigent patients, donated medical services, Medicare and Medicaid participation status, and policies regarding waiver of copayments and deductibles. For methodology reasons, the data provided by respondents were not generalized to the entire LSMS physician member population. Even with this statistically conservative approach, however, the survey indicated that the 1,086 respondents provided free and reduced-fee care in the amount of $51,353,650 annually, or an average of $47,287 per physician respondent.