Georgia Lawmaker Urges More Funding For Hospitals That Provide Care For Low-Income, Uninsured

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 25 Oct 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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Georgia Sen. David Shafer (R) in a letter to Department of Community Health Commissioner Rhonda Medows wrote that almost every hospital in the state is getting a portion of the $400 million disproportionate share hospital funding meant only for facilities that provide a large amount of care to low-income and uninsured residents, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Grady Memorial Hospital, which is "by far the largest provider of health care to poor and uninsured" Georgia residents, will receive about $70 million in such payments for this fiscal year, the Journal-Constitution reports. Shafer wrote that hospitals such as Grady that "actually provide disproportionate indigent care are being shortchanged tens of millions of dollars." He wrote that expansions in the program have allowed hospitals that provide almost no care to the uninsured to receive money from the fund, turning it into an "across-the-board subsidy for the health care delivery system."

DCH spokesperson Amanda Seals said that cutting funding for some hospitals "would have the potential for contributing to the collapse of hospitals in several communities who would not have enough time to develop alternative plans for their communities to have hospital access." Community Health officials have proposed a new formula to distribute the funding, but Shafer says it is not enough. He said that the "issue is bigger than Grady, and frankly, Grady's problems are bigger than this one program" (Salzer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/23).

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