Charity care in Emory Healthcare
In fiscal year 2014-2015, Emory Healthcare provided $67.4 million in charity care.
“Charity care” is defined as unreimbursed expenses incurred during care for individual patients and falls into two categories: (1) indigent care for patients with no health insurance, not even Medicaid or Medicare, and no resources of their own and (2) catastrophic care for patients who may have some coverage but for whom health care bills are so large relative to their financial situation that paying them would be permanently life-shattering.
The box below details the charity care provided at individual Emory Healthcare facilities. Included elsewhere in this book are amounts of uncompensated care provided by Emory physicians who practice at Grady Memorial Hospital and at other hospitals and clinics where many volunteer during their free time.
In addition to charity care, Emory Healthcare provides numerous other services to help improve access to care, advance medical knowledge, and relieve or reduce dependence on taxpayer-funded community efforts. In fiscal year 2014-2015, this total for Emory Healthcare was $52,652,820. Following are examples of what this total includes:
- $7,672,201 from the community benefit inventory for social accountability (CBISA). Significant CBISA dollars include activities such as discounted/free prescription drug programs; programs and contracted services for indigent patients; in-kind donations to organizations such as MedShare; transportation services; flu shots; blood drives; subsidized continuing care, nursing home care, and home care; sponsorship of selected charity health awareness events; and educational programs for the public, future health professionals, and patients
- $20,939,775 shortfall between Emory Healthcare’s cost to provide care to Medicaid patients and the Medicaid reimbursement
- $24,040,844 costs to Emory Healthcare for the Georgia provider tax, which supports the Medicaid budget and helps maintain payment levels for all Medicaid providers
Charity care totals Fiscal year 2014—2015■ Emory University Hospital/ ■ Emory University Hospital Midtown...................................................15,674,117 ■ Emory Rehabilitation Hospital............................................................4,575,177 ■ Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital...........................................................8,618,378 ■ Emory Johns Creek Hospital..............................................................2,014,609 ■ Emory Clinic and Emory Specialty Associates.....................................19,105,656 ■ Emory Wesley Woods Center................................................................488,253 Total.........................................................................................$67,419,721 The $67.4 million total above represents the unreimbursed cost of providing charity care, based on actual expenses to Emory Healthcare. Cost reporting is standard for calculating charity care totals, as required by the Internal Revenue Service and advocated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Catholic Health Association. |
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