Hospitals found lax in aiding poor patients

Almost half of Long Island hospitals didn't provide legally required information on how a low-income patient could apply for financial assistance, a survey released Monday found.

Under state law, hospitals must offer low-income patients who don't qualify for health insurance -- including the undocumented -- information on how to apply for financial aid for emergency and nonemergency care. The state then reimburses hospitals for the patients' care.

But a survey by the advocacy law firm Empire Justice Center found that when law students posing as daughters of an ailing undocumented mother with no health insurance phoned or went to Long Island hospitals, only four of the 23 provided accurate information. Eleven of the 23 hospitals either supplied no information or wrong information, the survey found.

"A disappointingly high number did not even yield even basic information," said Don Friedman, a survey co-author. A large number also gave the law students incorrect information, telling the daughter her mother could get care only if she was admitted to the emergency room, Friedman said.

Kevin Dahill, president of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council, agreed "there is room for improvement." He said Long Island hospitals are working with the hospital council "to link uninsured patients with needed services."

Michael Moran, a spokesman for the state Department of Health, said improving compliance with the law has been the focus of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, which will see "how compliance can be improved."

Long Island was chosen for the survey because of stories the law center heard. But Trilby deJung, the survey's other co-author, said there was no reason to think Long Island hospitals were worse than others in the state.

In the survey, conducted from the summer of 2010 to the spring of 2011, nine law students posed as concerned daughters seeking information on how to get financial assistance for their mother, who was undocumented and suffered from worsening diabetes. The students called each hospital twice and visited each once. Hospitals were rated on whether they displayed a sign stating that financial aid was available, whether the person received an application or brochure and whether she was able to talk with a knowledgeable person.

Hospitals were identified by letter, not names, Friedman said.

DeJung said the state does not check to see if hospitals comply with the law. She called for a change in the way hospitals are reimbursed. Currently payments to hospitals aren't directly connected to charity care delivered to specific patients. That should change, she said, so that hospitals are reimbursed based on each case of indigent care.