Section 120.25. Uncompensated health care services report.

 

(1)   Data sources. The uncompensated health care services report shall be based on data derived from all of the following sources:

(a) Annual hospital plans for the provision of uncompensated health care submitted to the department by hospitals.

(b) Fiscal surveys of hospitals conducted by the department.

(2)   Contents. The uncompensated health care services report shall contain all of the following information:

(a) For each hospital, the report shall list all of the following:

1. The city in which the hospital is located.

2. The type of the hospital.

3. The dollar amount of charity care provided for the most recent fiscal year.

4. The proportion of total annual gross patient revenue that constitutes the charity care.

5. The annual amount of bad debt.

6. The proportion of total annual gross patient revenue that constitutes the bad debt.

7. The total annual dollar amount of charity care and bad debt.

8. The proportion of total annual gross patient revenue that constitutes both charity care and bad debt.

9. The proportion of total nongovernmental patient revenue that constitutes the charity care.

10. The proportion of total nongovernmental patient revenue that constitutes the bad debt.

11. The proportion of total annual nongovernmental patient revenue that constitutes both charity care and bad debt.

12. The number of patients that received charity care during the most recent fiscal year.

13. The number of patients projected to receive charity care during the subsequent fiscal year.

14. The number of bad debt patient accounts during the most recent fiscal year.

15. The number of bad debt patient accounts projected for the subsequent fiscal year.

16. The total number of charity care and bad debt cases during the most recent fiscal year.

17. The total number of charity care and bad debt cases projected for the subsequent fiscal year.

18. Whether and to what extent the hospital has outstanding obligations on state loan funds, excluding fund proceeds from the Wisconsin health and educational facilities authority, during the most recent fiscal year.

(b) For each hospital with county general relief revenues greater than $500,000 or 1% of total gross patient revenue for the most recent fiscal year, the report shall list all of the following:

1. The county in which the hospital is located.

2. The amount of general relief revenues the hospital received.

3. The proportion of total gross revenue that the general relief revenue represents.

4. The proportion of charges for general relief cases that were reimbursed by counties.

(c) A copy of the department's hospital uncompensated health care plan survey.

(d) A copy of the department's hospital fiscal survey.

(e) A glossary of terms used in the report.

(f) Brief discussions of all of the following:

1. The definition of uncompensated health care services.

2. Problems associated with measuring hospitals' charitable contributions to their communities.

3. Summary statistics pertaining to uncompensated health care services.

4. How hospitals project uncompensated health care.

5. How hospitals verify the need for charity care.

6. A list of hospitals with obligations to provide reasonable amounts of charity care.

7. How hospitals notify the public about charity care.

(3)   Report dissemination. The department shall distribute a paper copy of the report at no charge to the governor, the legislature and a board-approved list of individuals and agencies. The department shall make the paper version of the report available for purchase by others. The department shall make available from the department's website an electronic version of the report at no charge.

(4)   Suggested uses of report. Some suggestions for using the report are as follows:

(a) By legislators and policymakers to determine the level of uncompensated health care provided in various areas of the state and, in turn, whether the burden of uncompensated health care is fairly shared by all hospitals.

(b) In conjunction with other available information, by insurance companies and other third-party payers and by business or consumer groups to determine the extent to which uncompensated health care affects hospitals' charges and hospitals' ability to provide services to a community.

(c) As a resource document for persons wishing to conduct research or seek information on uncompensated health care.

History: Cr. Register, December, 2000, No. 540 , eff. 1-1-01.