Community Benefit
The stakes are huge because Medicaid enrollees are more likely to engage in unhealthy practices, such as smoking, and are less likely to get preventive care, studies show.
One issue driving the change: 30.7 percent of insured consumers said that the cost was lower than another source of care.
About two of three people say it is still difficult to know how much specific doctors or hospitals charge for medical treatments or procedures.
The group's first priority is advancing the Medicare doctor payment legislation pending in the Senate because it includes a provision requiring Medicare to release for broader use a substantial amount of data on claims at the provider level.
Cost of free care provided to patients who can't afford to pay slides to $101 million in 2014 compared with $171 million in 2013.
After Valley Hospital of Ridgewood, N.J., switched to pajamas and gowns that provide extra coverage, costs went up $70,000 per year.
The gift will cover the cost for a da Vinci robot, the hospital announced, which helps surgeons to make smaller incisions, improves accuracy and provides 3-D imagery.
More than 1,300 healthcare providers operate on the edge of the U.S. healthcare system. They are critical access hospitals, small facilities that have fewer than 25 beds and are often in remote, rural areas and provide needed care to smaller populations.
“Not all readmissions can or should be prevented; indeed, some are planned as part of sound clinical care,” AHA says.
More than two-thirds of the estimated reduction, or $5 billion, was in states opting to expand Medicaid to uninsured low-income adults.