Christus Health Gulf Coast

Community benefit reporting - charity care and medicaid christus adheres to the catholic health association's a guide for planning and reporting community benefit (2008), and complies with the state of texas requirements for reporting. community benefit, reported as unpaid costs, includes both charity care and community services. to the limits of its resources, christus health is an institution of purely public charity; thus, the most tangible expression of christus health's charitable purpose is the provision of healthcare services to those persons who are unable to pay. charity care falls into two categories: charity care and unpaid government indigent care. in keeping with the mission, values, and vision of christus health, christus health gulf coast provides charity care services in a manner that respects the dignity of the patients and their families. charity care is provided without charge or at a charge that is less than the usual charge for such services. the determination as to the amount to be charged, if any, is made according to a patient's ability to pay as determined by the established eligibility criteria. for uninsured patients whose economic circumstances place them at or under 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines (fpl), services are provided without any expectation of payment. uninsured patients whose economic circumstances place them between 200 and 400 percent of fpl are charged based on a sliding scale and those above 400 percent receive discounts based on the uninsured fee schedule. no patient is refused necessary medical care due to inability to pay. christus health facilities provide other charity care by funding or otherwise financially supporting health care services provided to financially indigent patients through other nonprofit or public outpatient clinics, hospitals or health care organizations. christus health is an active participant in the states of texas, new mexico and louisiana medicaid programs. those programs seek to provide payment for health care services to individuals who meet certain financial and other requirements. financial requirements include evaluation of both assets and income.

Other government sponsored services in addition to the provision of charity care and other community services, christus health provides services to persons covered under government-sponsored programs, including medicare, dod and tricare. the non-reimbursed costs of these services are reported to the state of texas but are not included in reports prepared following catholic health association guidelines. christus health provides services to persons covered under the federal medicare program, and in fact, this is the largest single payor classification of patients served by this health system. the payment rate for inpatient services is on a "per case" rate, calculated based on the diagnostic-related group (drg) into which the patient is categorized. outpatient services are reimbursed by medicare based on a fee schedule. christus health dba us family health plan also provides the uniform medical benefit for 11,230 military family members under contract with the department of defense. under this program, comprehensive medical services are provided to families of active duty military personnel and to retirees and their families in all age categories, including those over age 65. christus health also participates in the tricare standard program and many of our hospitals contract with the managed care support contractor for the south region to provide services under the provision of tricare prime.