MD officials recommend required charity care for hospitals

Medicaid used to the be the payer of last resort now it is hospitals..let me explain with an example..patient shows up in the emergency room as uninsured and could meet the medicaid enrollment guidelines or has dropped out of the program because they didn't re-enroll.and what if this patient does not go through the process to get enrolled/re-enrolled..so the hospital is motivated by maryland rules to treat as charity(or become the payer of last resort)..we have just told the patient you don't need to enroll (go through all that paperwork) the hospital will cover your emergency room care..charity care is not insurance..this patient will not be able to see doctors or get prescriptions filled..in this case charity care is actually bad for the patient..maybe not bad for the state since they have less funds being spent on medicaid..not bad for federal government since they have less money to spend on matching funds..and it may not be bad for the hospital because people will not attack them regarding their tax exemption..so the big loser could be the patient who continues to use the emergency room as their provider..