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By Associated Press
POSTED: 07:42 p.m. EDT, Aug 11, 2008
CLEVELAND: A public hospital will no longer provide free or discounted doctor visits to uninsured people who live outside Cuyahoga County because of an $8 million hospital budget shortfall.
MetroHealth Medical Center has started calling 900 nonresident patients before their next doctor's appointments to inform them that they must pay $150 for each visit. If they don't have the money, patients are given lists of free and community health clinics in their home counties.
MetroHealth officials said most patients they are calling have chronic medical conditions that require frequent doctor visits.
The decision to enforce the residency requirement became effective last week. About 73 employees also have been laid off because of the budget shortfall.
''MetroHealth, which is partly supported by Cuyahoga County taxpayers, cannot afford to continue to subsidize the total care of out-of-county patients,'' the hospital said in a statement today.
The residency requirement excludes those needing emergency care or patients who are taken to the hospital by helicopter or ambulance for trauma care.
University Hospital in Cincinnati is the safety net hospital for the region of southwest Ohio that includes Cincinnati and Hamilton County and also provides care for indigent patients from surrounding counties such as Butler, Warren and Clermont.
''We've not done what Metro has done to date,'' said Rick Hinds, vice president of finance for University Hospital.
At MetroHealth, doctors can override the new requirement ''if a physician feels the patient must be seen,'' said Eileen Korey, vice president of communications.
While the residency rule has long been the hospital's policy, it hasn't been widely enforced. Instead, the medical staff has generally accepted people's word and loose documentation that they lived in Cuyahoga County.
One out-of-county patient, Pam Frame, said she was upfront with hospital officials that she lived in neighboring Lorain County. ''I had just lost my job at Ford Motor and I had no medical at all, and I ended up needing care,'' said Frame, who lives in North Ridgeville.
A new computer system that went online in late May made it easier to find those who are getting free and reduced-cost care but who live outside Cuyahoga County.
Patients who get emergency treatment at hospitals outside the county often are referred to MetroHealth for follow-up care, according to Barbara West, administrator of emergency and ambulatory services. She said ER doctors know their local community doctors may demand out-of-pocket payment from uninsured patients.
Federal law requires hospitals that receive Medicare funds — which is nearly all of them — to see all emergency room patients and, at the very least, stabilize them.
CLEVELAND: A public hospital will no longer provide free or discounted doctor visits to uninsured people who live outside Cuyahoga County because of an $8 million hospital budget shortfall.
MetroHealth Medical Center has started calling 900 nonresident patients before their next doctor's appointments to inform them that they must pay $150 for each visit. If they don't have the money, patients are given lists of free and community health clinics in their home counties.
MetroHealth officials said most patients they are calling have chronic medical conditions that require frequent doctor visits.
The decision to enforce the residency requirement became effective last week. About 73 employees also have been laid off because of the budget shortfall.
''MetroHealth, which is partly supported by Cuyahoga County taxpayers, cannot afford to continue to subsidize the total care of out-of-county patients,'' the hospital said in a statement today.
The residency requirement excludes those needing emergency care or patients who are taken to the hospital by helicopter or ambulance for trauma care.
University Hospital in Cincinnati is the safety net hospital for the region of southwest Ohio that includes Cincinnati and Hamilton County and also provides care for indigent patients from surrounding counties such as Butler, Warren and Clermont.
''We've not done what Metro has done to date,'' said Rick Hinds, vice president of finance for University Hospital.
At MetroHealth, doctors can override the new requirement ''if a physician feels the patient must be seen,'' said Eileen Korey, vice president of communications.
While the residency rule has long been the hospital's policy, it hasn't been widely enforced. Instead, the medical staff has generally accepted people's word and loose documentation that they lived in Cuyahoga County.
One out-of-county patient, Pam Frame, said she was upfront with hospital officials that she lived in neighboring Lorain County. ''I had just lost my job at Ford Motor and I had no medical at all, and I ended up needing care,'' said Frame, who lives in North Ridgeville.
A new computer system that went online in late May made it easier to find those who are getting free and reduced-cost care but who live outside Cuyahoga County.
Patients who get emergency treatment at hospitals outside the county often are referred to MetroHealth for follow-up care, according to Barbara West, administrator of emergency and ambulatory services. She said ER doctors know their local community doctors may demand out-of-pocket payment from uninsured patients.
Federal law requires hospitals that receive Medicare funds — which is nearly all of them — to see all emergency room patients and, at the very least, stabilize them.
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