United States Hospitals have traditionally relied primarily on revenues from paying patients to offset losses from unreimbursed care. Almost all paying patients now rely on governmental or private health insurance to pay hospital bills. Recently, insurers have been strictly limiting what they pay hospitals for the care of insured patients to amounts at or below actual costs.
Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?
(A) Although the advance of technology has made expensive medical procedures available to the wealthy, such procedures are out of the reach of low-income patients.
-advance of technology is irrelevant
(B) If hospitals do not find ways of raising additional income for unreimbursed care, they must either deny some of that care or suffer losses if they give it.
Correct. The key here is recognizing that insurers are more strict on what they pay hospitals, limiting their payment of claims to amounts AT OR BELOW ACTUAL costs…so while historically hospitals have been able to offset losses with patient purchases, the fact that the new source of revenue could be less than what hospitals need means that income must come from somewhere else
(C) Some patients have incomes too high for eligibility for governmnetal health insurance but are unable to afford private insurance for hospital care. X
OK so presumably these individuals (if the situation demands it) pay out of pocket …revenue is going into the hospital. OUT.
(D) If the hospitals reduce their costs in providing care, insurance companies will maintain the current level of reimbursement, thereby providing more funds for unreimbursed care. X
-‘will maintain the current level of reimbursement’…we don’t know that…
(E) Even though philanthropic donations have traditionally provided some support for the hospitals, such donations are at present declining.
-philanthropic donations are irrelevant
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