Arizona Hospitals: Unpaid Bills Down After Medicaid Expansion

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DALLAS — Unpaid medical bills dropped 31% in the first four months of the year in Arizona after the state expanded Medicaid coverage to the working poor, according to a survey by the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

Against strong opposition from members of her party, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer agreed to accept federal funds to add 300,000 state residents to the Medicaid rolls. Those newly eligible are considered the "working poor," since their incomes are near the poverty line.

Since Jan. 1, more than 192,000 residents have signed up for the newly available Medicaid, according to researchers. Another 120,000 residents signed up for private health insurance under provisions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Since then, uncompensated medical care in the state has fallen to $170 million, down from $246 million in the same period last year. That represents a 31% decrease, according to the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

The association said that, despite the positive signs, it's too early to assess the Medicaid expansion's effect on the healthcare business.

Medicaid expansion appears to be especially helpful to financially challenged rural hospitals, the association said. Hospitals still must pay an estimated $233 million for their combined Medicaid assessment fee.

Nationally, an estimated 9.5 million fewer adults were uninsured in the first half of the year, according to a July 10 report by Commonwealth Fund.

The uninsured rate for people ages 19 to 64 declined from 20% in the July-to-September 2013 period to 15% in the April-to-June 2014 period, according to the Commonwealth Fund survey.

Young men and women drove a large part of the decline: the uninsured rate for 19-to-34-year-olds declined from 28% to 18%, with an estimated 5.7 million fewer young adults uninsured.

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Healthcare industry Arizona
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