Uninsured Skating on Medical Bills

[Welcome Kaiser Network readers!]

Much is made of the uninsured, and especially when the press reports how much they are "overcharged" for services. But very little is made of how much the uninsured actually PAY for medical services.

Grady Hospital in Atlanta is in crisis and services have been cut and more cut's will continue. A more recent casualty of mismanagement at Grady is the impending cutback in ambulance services.

According to the AJC, the Grady medical transport unit lost some $8.7 million in the recent year.

The reports indicate it costs Grady on average about $322 to transport a patient. Figures by type of patient play out as such.

Medicare patients totaled 15,358 with total charges of $6,907,870 against total receipts of $5,254,123 or $342 per patient.

Medicaid patients totaled 15,269 with total charges of $4,970,887 against total receipts of $4,140,589 or $271 per patient.

Patients with insurance totaled 7,421 with total charges of $4,329,658 against total receipts of $3,129,299 or $422 per patient.

UNINSURED patients totaled 28,871 with total charges of $18,709,722 against total receipts of $309,630 or $11 per patient.

Read that again.

Uninsured patients paid an average of $11 for services rendered. They comprised 44% of the trips but only paid 3% of the revenue.

Seems like it is time for the uninsured to pay their "fair share".