Settlement Regarding Billing of Uninsured Patients
Sutter Health and our affiliated hospitals are committed to ensuring that medical costs and lack of insurance are not barriers to people in need of quality health care.
- Sutter's hospitals provide free or discounted medical care to thousands of patients annually.
- Most uninsured patients do not pay their bills.
- Our charity care costs grew from $42 million in 2004 to $59 million in 2005. Sutter's charity care costs have more than doubled since 2003.
Read our recent news release on the settlement agreement
The Sutter settlement is retroactive to September 2000, and it includes the following agreements:
- Sutter hospitals will offer a 25 to 45 percent discount from billed charges to uninsured patients retroactively to September 2000.
- Sutter hospitals will continue to abide by our policy to offer automatic discounts to non-low-income uninsured patients for at least three more years. The discounts are based on those given to commercial health plans. We plan to maintain the policy indefinitely.
- Uninsured patients who were treated at a Sutter hospital dating back to September 2000 will be notified of their eligibility to have their bills recalculated. Recalculated bills are expected to reflect average discounts of about 35 percent. Consequently, uninsured patients who have paid approximately 65 percent or more of their bills may be eligible for a refund.
- Sutter will continue its long-standing charity care policy, which allows uninsured patients with annual incomes below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines ($41,300 a year for a family of four) to qualify to receive free care. Uninsured patients with annual incomes between 200 and 400 percent of the FPIG ($41,300-$82,600 a year for a family of four) will continue to be billed at rates well below those charged to private insurance companies.
