Report Finds Drop in Charity Care Cases at San Francisco Hospitals
On Tuesday, the San Francisco Health Commission is scheduled to consider a report finding that the number of patients seeking charity care services at San Francisco hospitals dropped from 2005 to 2006, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
According to the report, the number of charity care cases in San Francisco hospitals declined from 106,081 in 2005 to 103,990 in 2006, a drop of about 2%.
Alicia Neumann, a senior health planner with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said the decline could be attributed to increased investments in efforts to enroll people in health care programs.
The report calls for improvements to hospitals' charity care programs, including greater cooperation with Healthy San Francisco, the city's universal health access program (Smith, San Francisco Examiner, 1/26).