Hospital Charity Care Debate Red Hot This Week

The debate about hospital charity care in Illinois continued to heat up this week. March 1st was the Governor's deadline for state and hospital negotiators to come up with a workable new definition of charity care.  I favor a broader definition for charity care which I call “community benefit.”  Now, the Chicago Tribune agrees. The Trib’s March 2nd editorial is right on target.

Here is an example of how the broader definition of charity care works with our health center’s long-standing collaboration with Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Erie Family Health Center is a non-profit community agency that provides primary health care to over 37,000 low-income patients at 11 service locations on the West and Northwest Sides of Chicago, regardless of the ability to pay.

Over 98% of our patients live below twice the federal poverty level which is $44,000 per year for a family of four.  Over one third of our patients have no health insurance at all. Over two-thirds do not speak English as their primary language.  

Every year, thousands of specialist appointments, diagnostic tests, mammograms, surgeries, ER visits and hospital days are provided by Northwestern at no cost to our low-income uninsured patients. They are not turned away.

Northwestern’s collaboration with us extends way beyond the traditional and narrow definition of charity care.  

With Northwestern’s support patients receive needed services at our neighborhood locations: A community-based diabetes control program addresses an epidemic of diabetes with education and counseling, an eye care program prevents blindness in patients with diabetes or HIV/AIDS, and a breast cancer screening program (click for video)  identifies women in need of mammograms and links them to free tests.  We jointly established a community-based program to train the next generation of family physicians to serve in high needs neighborhoods – one of only 11 programs in the country and the only one in our state.

Our patients have many extreme barriers to accessing health care including transportation, cultural challenges and literacy.  By planning ahead and coordinating care at our community-based locations, costly emergency room visits are avoided and more uninsured patients stay healthy and out of the hospital. Isn’t this an efficient use of the charity care dollar?