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Hospitals may gain as much as $16 billion from the Obama administration's proposals to overhaul the health care system, according to a newly disclosed analysis by the American Hospital Association.
Hospitals will benefit from the elimination of bad debt for treating those without insurance, according to Ira Loss, a senior health analyst at Washington Analysis, a Washington, D.C.-based company that examines the effects of public policy decisions. Many hospital organizations have bad debt of up to 10% of accounts.
Hospitals are among six interest groups that pledged to cut $2 trillion over 10 years to support President Obama's top domestic goal of reducing health care costs and covering the nation's 46 million uninsured.
Community Health Systems Inc., HCA Inc. and other hospital groups would receive $171 billion in reimbursements over the course of 10 years for the newly insured under legislation to provide medical coverage to all U.S. citizens, the AHA said in a report to industry and lawmakers. The benefit would more than offset $155 billion in proposed cost cuts during the same period that hospitals promised in a deal with the White House.
