Hospitals have free-care rules for uninsured

Did you know that Virginia Mason Medical Center charges nothing to treat some uninsured people? So do Swedish Medical Center and Providence Everett Medical Center.

All three hospitals have policies to write off all charges for people who earn no more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that would be $40,000 a year. Even people with higher incomes can receive discounts of 50 percent or more on their hospital fees.

But nonprofit hospitals don't exactly trumpet those charity-care policies, which carry no minimum requirement for the amount of free care. Thus, many patients are unaware they can get a break.

Now the Washington State Hospital Association is pushing all hospitals in the state to sign pledges guaranteeing discounts for all uninsured patients with incomes of up to 300 percent of the poverty level, which is $60,000 for a family of four.

But there's a catch: Hospitals are not legally required to admit patients for non-emergency care. And charity discounts apply only to fees charged by the hospitals, not by physicians.

— Kyung M. Song