Uncompensated Hospital Care
Abstract
ARTICLES Uncompensated Hospital Care R. Paul Duncan Through most of the recorded history of medicine, and across the diverse cultural contexts in which medical care has been orga- nized, hospitals, physicians, and other health care organizations and providers have been delivering care to patients who cannot pay for it. In the United States during the 1980s, however, an unprecedented increase occurred in the frequency with which the phenomenon was noted and discussed. Furthermore, it was during this last decade that the issue underwent an interesting transformation. Uncompensated care came to be defined as a problem- perhaps one of crisis proportions - rather than simply a fact of life. Address correspondence and requests for reprints to R. Paul Duncan, Ph.D., Professor of Health Services Administration, Research Scientist, Center for Health Policy Research, P.O. Box 100195, Health Science Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610. This article, submitted to Medical Care Review on August 20, 1991, was revised and accepted for publication on January 10, 1992. Medical Care Review 49:3 (Fall 1992) This article summarizes current knowledge about the problem of uncompensated care. First, a relatively brief discussion places the phe- nomenon in historical and structural perspective. That section leads