State (MD) sets new rules on free, low-cost hospital care [View All]

State sets new rules on free, low-cost hospital care
Consumer protections enacted in response to Sun series


Maryland hospitals must use new standards to determine who is eligible for free and reduced-price care, and provide information about financial assistance to all patients under two bills signed into law Thursday by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

The measures require state regulators to monitor whether hospitals comply with the new consumer protections, which also prohibit charging interest on bills incurred by uninsured patients before a court judgment is approved.

The new rules, which take effect June 1, require hospitals to give free care to all Maryland residents with incomes less than 1.5 times the federal poverty guideline - equivalent to $33,075 for a family of four - and provide reduced-price care to low-income patients above that level.

Legislators approved the bills in response to stories published last December in The Baltimore Sun. The series documented how some of Maryland's 46 nonprofit hospitals were aggressively pursuing collection of unpaid bills from patients of limited means even though those debts are supposed to be recovered in the rates they charge.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.hospitaldebt08may08,0,379784.story