Both sides clash on charity care law in Wash. hospitals
Oct 17, 2023, 7:56 AM | Updated: 6:31 pm
The has filed a lawsuit over the state’s charity care law.
Washington hospitals currently provide charity care to those with financial need who have an emergency regardless of residence or immigration status.
Now, the wants them to provide charity care for any service.
The hospital association said this will make healthcare more expensive for everyone else.
鈥淭here is no such thing as free care. Nurses, physicians, pharmacists, housekeepers and other staff who care for charity care patients still must be paid,鈥� WSHA CEO Cassie Sauer said. 鈥淯nder the department鈥檚 interpretation, people living in Washington will subsidize charity care services to people from outside of the state.鈥�
It’s hoping for a ruling before January when those changes go into effect.
Related news: Wash. hospitals in capacity crisis; beds per capita worst in US
The state has long endorsed hospital policies that limit non-emergency charity care to residents of Washington state or geographies that correspond to the hospital鈥檚 service area.
On September 18 the DOH issued a statement changing its interpretation of the state鈥檚 charity care law. The department will now require all hospitals to provide charity care for any service to anyone in the world who seeks it. Washington hospitals disagree with the department鈥檚 interpretation.
鈥淭he new interpretation dramatically departs from more than three decades of established practice based on the state鈥檚 current charity care law and now bars hospitals from implementing charity care policies with any geographic limit,鈥� said Taya Briley, executive vice president and general counsel for the hospital association. 鈥淚nstead, it requires hospitals to provide free or discounted care to anyone from anywhere. The new approach would make WHSA state a medical tourism destination.鈥�
Many hospitals in Washington provide patients from other areas with services they cannot get where they live. For example, hospitals provide trauma services, pediatric specialty services, and organ transplants to people from outside Washington state. The new interpretation removes the hospital鈥檚 ability to discern what the organization can absorb while still providing care to local patients.
鈥淭he opening lines of the law make it clear charity care is intended for the benefit of the people of Washington state: 鈥楾he legislature finds that rising health care costs and access to health care services are of vital concern to the people of this state,” said Sauer. 鈥淲SHA鈥檚 goal is the same as the law鈥檚 goal: to ensure the benefits of charity care are for the people of our state and that hospital resources are available to Washingtonians who need them. If charity care is needed by a patient in the community, they should be able to access the care without competing for space with other patients from other states and around the world.鈥�
Mid-size and larger hospitals provide free and discounted care for people with income up to 400% of the federal poverty level, which is $58,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a family of four. Smaller hospitals provide free or discounted charity care to people with incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level or about $43,000 for an individual and $90,000 for a family of four.
WSHA is seeking an opinion from the Thurston County Superior Court before the DOH imposed January 16, 2024 deadline for hospitals to change their charity care policies.
Contributing: 成人X站 Newsradio
