Obamacare helps slash hospital charity costs in state (Washington)

"Washington hospitals provided nearly $154 million less in charity care in the first half of this year than in the first half of 2013, in many cases boosting the hospitals’ bottom lines."

"Hospitals attributed the plunge in charity care — about 30 percent — to the Affordable Care Act’s focus on reducing the number of uninsured patients."

"This year, for the first time, low-income and uninsured patients whose care was previously covered under hospitals’ charity-care programs were able under the ACA to qualify for Medicaid coverage or subsidized private insurance."

"Together, hospitals reported a 66 percent gain in total margin — the figure nonprofit hospitals report instead of profit — over the first half of 2013. For the first half of 2014, the aggregate margin for all hospitals reporting was nearly $720 million, compared with $435 million for the same period in 2013."

Read the article here:  http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024542340_acacharitydropxml.html