U.S. Hospitals Provided $45+ Billion in Charitable Care in 2012; Losses From Medicare & Medicaid Top $56 Billion

In 2012, hospitals in the United States provided $45.9 billion in uncompensated care, and losses from Medicare and Medicaid were $56 billion lower than the actual cost of care. According to the National Health Expenditures 2012 data released by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in 2012 Medicare paid $239.8 billion for inpatient hospital care and Medicaid paid $156.4 billion.

“Uncompensated care” is an overall measure of hospital care provided for which no payment was received from the patient or insurer. It represents the combined cost of bad debt and charity care to the . . .