Amount of Unpaid Medical Care at Wisconsin Hospitals Increases for First Time Since the Start of COVID Pandemic

Tuesday, November 19th, 2024 -- 8:00 AM

(Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) The amount of unpaid medical care at Wisconsin hospitals has increased for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Public Radio, the annual report from the Wisconsin Hospital Association looks at the total amount of charity care and bad debt, what’s referred to as uncompensated care, at 166 hospitals in the state.

Facilities provided $1.36 billion in uncompensated care around the state in 2023. That’s 6 percent more than during the previous year but the same amount reported in 2020.

Bad debt, when patients are unable or unwilling to pay, but don’t apply for financial assistance, made up more than half of the uncompensated care, totaling $731.6 million.

It’s a nearly 5 percent increase from 2022, but less than the amount of bad debt reported in 2021 and 2020. Charity care, or care that a hospital is able to write off through their taxes, totaled $627.3 million and was just under 8 percent higher than the previous year.

Total uncompensated care declined during the COVID-19 pandemic after years of steady increases. Brian Potter, WHA senior advisor, said the decrease is partly due to the overall decline in hospital use from people delaying care.

He said the numbers were also affected by increased enrollment in Medicaid insurance. The federal public health emergency during the pandemic stopped the annual re-enrollment process for Medicaid recipients, allowing people to retain their insurance.

But that policy ended in 2023 and Wisconsin began the year-long process of restarting eligibility checks, what public health leaders called Medicaid “unwinding.”

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