January 14, 2015
By Carol Gentry,
Florida’s “safety-net” hospitals – the ones that provide the most charity care — received another in a series of depressing projections Wednesday in a report from Florida Legal Services.
Taken together, the three reports issued to date by the patient-advocacy organization describe a pending loss of $2 billion a year to the state’s health-care providers for the poor. Federal funding that has propped them up is scheduled to end June 30, Florida Legal Services said.
[…]
Hospitals are the most visible losers, but some of the money also goes to community health centers and other health-care providers. Others affected include the counties that help support the hospitals, employers and insured patients who pay extra to cover unpaid bills, and ultimately uninsured patients who may find fewer services, the reports say.
“It’s an issue that affects everybody,” said Joan Alker of Georgetown University, who conducts grant-funded research on Florida’s health-care system.
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