Charity Care

Charity care is one of the foundations that our current hospital and medical system was created upon. During their inception in the European nations, hospitals were primarily for the care of the poor and indigent. Richer more affluent individuals were able to pay for care from a personal physician in their own home.
In modern times, charity care is becoming more and more of a scarcity. In a two year period from 1997 to 1999, the percentage of physicians performing charity care dropped from 4%, from 76% to 72%. There are great concerns about where this trend will lead, and all assumptions are that the number of physicians providing this charity care will continue to decline.
There is currently at least some margin of charity care written into law. As it now stands, no hospital may turn away a patient in critical need of emergency services or who is going into labor. These are both defined as “stabilizing treatment” and are both enforced by government action. There are several other proposed ideas which could be used in an effort to step up the degree of charity care in all medical organizations nationwide. The first of these is tax exemption based on the amount of charity care performed. Essentially, the greater the quantity of charity care performed, the greater the tax benefits provided. These financial benefits can be tremendous when you consider the narrow margins and tremendous operating costs associated with the medical giants of today. Another concept is conditional tax exemption. This follows the same general concept as previously, a hospital must attain and maintain a certain level of charity care provided in order to achieve tax exempt status. These two ideas are both in the same scope of concepts. While there are countless other ideas available, these are both financial in nature, and strike at the heart of the problem being tackled – taking care of people who can’t pay costs time and resources.
Our physicians and medical professionals have something very few people in this world have, the skills and ability to make a difference in this crisis. By taking the opportunity at hand, these skilled individuals can make a world altering difference, and change not only the lives of a select few, but restore the faith and trust of Americans and the world in a healthcare system that is currently viewed as being driven by greed.

-Kevin Martin