State trends in hospital uncompensated care

Abstract

In recent years hospital uncompensated care has been declining in the seven states studied here: California, Florida, Washington, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. We document these declines and compare trends in uncompensated care in safety-net and other hospitals between the early 1980s and the early to mid-1990s. We discuss state responses to deal with the declines in hospital uncompensated care and their likely impact on the observed trends.