Hospitals giving less charity care during hard economic times

From the Food Research Action Center:

Finances Force Charity Hospitals to Focus on Insured Patients (Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 13, 2008)The Center for Studying Health System Change has found that safety-net hospitals, in order to avoid running at a deficit, are are cutting charity-care costs and focusing more on insured patients by offering specialty services as well as upgrading and expanding facilities to attract more paying patients. The Center's report, a survey of twelve areas across the country, found a ten percent drop over the last ten years in the percentage of physicians providing any charity care. Safety-net hospitals seem to have no choice but to attract more paying patients, states the report, as the poor are less and less likely to find services in the current health-care system.