Charity care signs posted

The University of Texas Medical Branch has posted signs in its hospital and clinics about the availability discounted health care, and it has launched an audit to review its policies on charity care in response to a report criticizing area health care providers for lacking state-mandated polices about free and discounted medical services.

The report, released early this month, criticized area health care providers for claiming to provide millions in charity care, while at other times denying they did so, and lacking written polices about free or reduced-cost care, despite a state law requiring them to display such policies.

The medical branch claimed it provided $153 million in charity care in 2007, according to its report to the American Hospital Association. But, that same year, members of the Cancer Coalition of Galveston County said they repeatedly were told no free care was available. The surveyors, who visited the medical branch hospital and clinics from November 2007 to January 2008, said they could not obtain written polices about free care or financial assistance.

Medical branch officials said policies about discounted health care for the poor have been available on the medical branch’s Web site for many years and that signs were posted in key patient care areas before Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Sept. 13, 2008. However, the medical branch has no way to prove the signs were there since many of the clinics were flooded and remodeled.

Since the report was released, the medical branch has started posting its policies in English and Spanish at all entry points to the hospital and throughout all clinics.

The medical branch does discount health care for the poor but only after they undergo a financial screening, Dr. Ben Raimer, senior vice president of health policy and legislative affairs, said.

The medical branch’s financial screeners check patients’ incomes and assets and ensure they don’t qualify for Medicare, Medicaid, workman’s compensation or the county’s indigent program. The medical branch’s Demand and Access Management Program handled the financial screening, but that program closed after Hurricane Ike flooded the program’s off-campus office, Raimer said.

Financial screenings are done in clinics, he said.

The audit, in part, will attempt to analyze whether financial screening in clinics is better than at a centralized location, such as the Demand and Access Management Program office, Raimer said.

The report also criticized Galveston County 4C’s Clinics and Mainland Medical Center for lacking similar policies.

Surveyors said that, in 18 phone calls and visits to the 4C’s clinics in Galveston and Texas City, they were told free care was not available and staff did not provide polices on charity care. However, signs were posted about the available of discounted services.

Dr. Mark Guidry, CEO of the Galveston County Health District, said the clinics intend to put a sign out to inform patients of its reduced-cost care policies, which have long been posted on the health district’s Web site.

“The 4C’s has a very long history of being the full or essential primary care provider for the uninsured, and it’s pretty rare that I don’t meet someone that already knows that,” he said.

The corporation operating Mainland Medical Center continued to decline comment about the report’s contents or recommendations until its staff examined the report in full.

Hospital Corporation of America does offer a discount program for the uninsured who do not qualify for other government programs, Kris Muller, spokeswoman for the corporation’s Gulf Coast division, said. Financial counselors work with patients to help them get discounts on medical bills or other financial relief, she said.

Charity care policy signs posted