US hospital financing effectively assigns a lower dollar value to the care of Black patients.

[Nevilledog]

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uché blackstock, md
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Aug 9, 2022
@uche_blackstock
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New study showing that hospitals serving Black patients receive lower payments for patient care. They also accrue lower profits/surpluses than other hospitals.

US hospital financing effectively assigns a lower dollar value to the care of Black patients.

lowninstitute.org
Hospitals serving more Black patients are at a financial disadvantage, study finds - Lown Institute
The most inclusive hospitals for Black Medicare patients get nearly $500 less in patients revenue per day than other hospitals, making it more difficult for these hospitals to improve quality and...

uché blackstock, md
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"Equalizing reimbursement levels would have required $14 billion in additional payments to Black-serving hospitals in 2018, a mean of approximately $26 million per Black-serving hospital."

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6:48 PM · Aug 9, 2022

https://lowninstitute.org/hospitals-serving-more-black-patients-are-at-a-financial-disadvantage-study-finds/

It’s been more than 50 years since the Civil Rights Act and the advent of Medicare disallowed segregation at hospitals, but disturbingly, hospital systems in many major cities are still segregated by race in practice. A Lown Institute report earlier this year identified fifteen U.S. cities with racially segregated hospital markets, in which 50% or more of hospitals overserve or underserve Medicare patients from communities of color.

Our segregated hospital system has a significant impact on health equity because many of the most-inclusive hospitals in the country are under-resourced, which can lead to poorer quality of care. For example, quality issues at some New York City safety net hospitals contributed to higher rates of COVID-19 mortality and life-threatening birth complications for Black people. Many of the hospitals receiving one star on CMS’ measures of patient safety and patient experience are safety net hospitals and public hospitals serving communities of color.

Inclusive hospitals get paid less

Now a new study finds that some of the most inclusive hospitals for Black patients are also at a financial disadvantage, which may explain some of the differences in quality of care. In the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Dr. Gracie Himmelstein from the University of California Los Angeles and colleagues use hospital cost reports to measure hospital patient revenue and profits at hospitals serving more Black Medicare patients in 2016-2018.

They found that the 574 hospitals that served the greatest proportion of Black Medicare patients received $477 less in patient care revenues per inpatient day on average compared to other hospitals. Hospitals serving the most Black patients actually lost an average of $17 per inpatient day in profits while other hospitals gained $126 in profits each day.

*snip*

[MagickMuffin]

1. Racism has been institutalized from the start to discriminate against certain segments of society.

It's part of the financial, housing, healthcare, education, sports, on and go and so it goes!

[Demovictory9]

2. Kick

[Phoenix61]

3. That headline is misleading.

Hospitals don’t set reimbursement rates, public and private insurance does. Low reimbursement rates by public insurance doesn’t just impact urban areas. It’s led to the closure of rural hospitals across the country.