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If Medicare rates are actually below cogs, why do hospitals accept Medicare patients? I know some don't, but the vast majority do. Something about that explanat

• Thriptic 9y ago
  Some private facilities don't, but in general it's cheaper and easier to provide preventive care than it is to try to collect from these patients after they admit to the ER with a complication (where you are mandated by law to treat them). One of the reasons hospitals accept discounted rates for insured patients in general is ease of reimbursement vs trying to chase the patient for money.
• woolvalley 9y ago
  If you serve a certain rate of medicare patients, you get additional funding. It's set up this way for 'political' reasons. Like most of us politics, it's a mess.
  • chimeracoder 9y ago
    > If you serve a certain rate of medicare patients, you get additional funding. It's set up this way for 'political' reasons. Like most of us politics, it's a mess. That's not an incentive for hospitals to serve Medicare patients; it's compensation for the fact that the hospital sees so many Medicare patients (and therefore so few privately-insured patients, by portion) that it can't make up the difference solely from overcharging private insurers.