Madison advocacy group ABC for Health is alleging that Dane County hospitals did not address the needs of low-income patients at risk for medical debt in a community needs assessment, as federal law requires, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. According to the hospitals — which include UW Hospital, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital, UnityPoint Health-Meriter and Stoughton Health — the assessment complied with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements by incorporating the input from a variety of community groups.
The hospitals reportedly worked together with Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin and Public Health Madison and Dane County on the assessment released last fall and identified four areas of focus for the report: reproductive justice, chronic conditions, mental health and substance use and injury and safety.
ABC for Health, a nonprofit, public interest law firm that helps people access health care, alleges that the report ignores the financial struggles faced by some patients trying to pay for health care.
“The report lacks any recommendations to improve financial assistance policies, practices and processes to equitably serve populations negatively affected by health disparities,” Bobby Peterson, executive director of ABC for Health, alleges in the complaint. “It fails to address the impact of medical debt on Dane County patients.
“It lacks broad community input and instead reflects a hospital-driven marketing piece that ignores and sidesteps Affordable Care Act requirements,” the complaint says.
According to Peterson, ABC for Health tried to participate in the community needs assessment process but was intentionally left out. UW Health spokesperson Sara Benzel, meanwhile, said that UW “is proud to go above and beyond in its community health needs assessment work.”
She also said that ABC for Health has sought a contract with UW Health to help patients in need of financial assistance or insurance, but UW Health instead uses Elevate Patient Financial Solutions, a “revenue cycle management” company, for such services.
