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Grady slashes uninsured-patient rate

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Grady Memorial Hospital, the flagship of Grady Health System.

Grady Health System, in Atlanta, increased its net revenue by $106 million last year.  John Haupert, its CEO, credits the system’s decision to change its charity-care policy and invest in an electronic health record system as main reasons for the improvement, which included going from losses to a $40 million profit.

But Pete Correll, the former chairman of Grady’s corporate governing board, told the Albany (Ga.) Herald earlier this year that Mr. Haupert’s decision to fix the system’s coding, billing and collections was the ”single greatest accomplishment in turning Grady around.”

Perhaps the most interesting achievement is that Grady sharply reduced its uninsured rate by reviewing its charity-care policy.  Traditionally,  once a patient qualified for charity care, he or she was always eligible for free or minimum cost care. But Mr. Haupert, told H&HN,  the system reassesses patients  every time that they visit the hospital to see if they are eligible for other types of funding.

“We were able to go from 42 percent of our patients being uninsured to 27 percent — meaning that difference came from Medicaid,” he said.

To read the H&HN article, please hit this link.

To read the Albany Herald article, please hit this link.

 

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