Hospitals and Charity Care – Iowa

‘Charity’ care, bad debt rise for Iowa hospitals, By Rod Boshart, August 2, 2011, Cedar Rapids Gazette: “The prolonged U.S. economic downturn has contributed to a rise in the level of uncompensated ‘charity care’ and unpaid medical debts that Iowa hospitals have incurred in recent years, officials said Tuesday. Overall, the 118-member Iowa Hospital Association provided more than $850 million worth of care last year for which the facilities were not fully compensated, association spokesman Scott McIntyre said. That level, based on a member survey, was up $54 million, or 6.8 percent, from 2009. The total stood at $252 million in 2000, he said…”