A spokesperson for the Iowa Hospital Association (IHA) says new data shows the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program is benefiting both hospitals and patients in the state. Scott McIntyre (mack’-in-tire) says an I-H-A study compares numbers between January and June of this year and to the same six month period a year ago.
Federal officials granted a waiver for Iowa’s Medicaid expansion plan, which provided more than 100,000 low income Iowans with health care coverage. McIntyre says the result is Iowa hospitals’ charity care costs fell 18.5 percent, or $32.5 million, in the first six months of this year.
The analysis, based on data collected from 101 Iowa hospitals, also found overall inpatient admissions declined 4.4 percent over the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2013.
