Charity care: Physicians keep on giving

One little-noted fact about physicians that says a lot about the medical profession: Nearly two-thirds of doctors provide free or reduced-fee care for the poor.

Editorial. June 17, 2002.

It's not the kind of story that creates front-page headlines in the national media, but April's report on the provision of charity care by physicians contains some important and welcome news.

The report, based on research from the American Medical Association's Center for Health Policy Research, showed that in 1999, nearly two-thirds of the physicians in the United States provided charity care. The numbers were down slightly from those collected in a similar study in 1994, but showed an increase over 1988 levels.

The number of charity hours per doctor per week rose from 6.6 to 8.8 hours between 1988 and 1999. Some 4.4 hours each week, on average, were devoted to providing free care; 4.7 hours were spent on reduced-fee care. (So-called "bad debt" care, for which a physician expected reimbursement but did not receive it, was excluded from the report.)

The report demonstrated a strong and continuing physician commitment to charity care, despite the financial pressures managed care has imposed on many practices. The information on charity care was taken from the AMA's Socioeconomic Monitoring System, a national survey of non-federal physicians who have completed their graduate medical education. Charity care is defined, in the report, as care that is provided for free or for a reduced fee due to the patients' financial needs. [...]