Number of unpaid hospital bills shrinks under Obamacare

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/number-of-unpaid-hospital-bills-shrinks-under-obamacare/

The number of unpaid medical bills is shrinking across the United States thanks to the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act. As more people sign up for private health insurance, and as more states expand Medicaid programs for low-income Americans, hospital companies are reporting lower expenses for charity and uncompensated expenses, a Forbes columnist noted Sunday.

The latest example comes from Universal Health Services Inc., one of the largest U.S. hospital management companies. The firm's acute care hospitals have seen a "decrease in the aggregate of charity care, uninsured discounts and provision of doubtful accounts as a percentage of gross charges," executives said in their earnings report for the second-quarter and first half of 2015.

Uncompensated care declined in the second quarter "as it has the last six quarters now," Steve Filton, the company's chief financial officer, told analysts on a conference call Thursday.

Universal Health's cost for providing "doubtful accounts" -- an estimate of charges that are expected to go unpaid -- dropped 17 percent to $274 million during the first half of 2015, down from $331 million in the previous year.

Acute care hospitals provided charity care and uninsured discounts amounting to $550 million in the first half of this year, a nearly 7 percent dip from costs of $586 million in the first six months of 2014.

really really short and sweet, another republican lie finally bites the dust