Allegheny County Seeks Medical Discounts
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, believes jails are being ripped off by local hospitals:
Allegheny County Health Department officials are lobbying state legislators to require that hospitals give the same price breaks for treating jail inmates as Medicare or Medicaid patients get. Dr. Bruce Dixon, director of the health department, said many inmates would qualify for medical assistance if they weren’t incarcerated, and a law limiting their medical bills could save the county money that could be used for public health programs. “Hospitals are profiting off the back of the taxpayers. These are the same individuals that, if they walked into an emergency room, if (hospitals) got paid at all, they would get Medicaid,” said Dixon.
A lot more on this at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.