Running Head: COOPER GREEN HOSPITAL

Cooper Green Hospital and the Community Care Plan
Strayer University
Health Economics
April 20, 2012
Dr. Mountasser Kadrie

1. Discuss six (6) unique problems associated with delivering health care to an indigent population. Delivering health care to an indigent population can be problematic with there being more patients needing care than there are providers. "Safety net providers had a large Medicaid and indigent care caseloads relative to other providers" (Swayne, Duncan, & Ginter, 2009, p. 698). Providers that provide care to indigent populations do not receive the compensation for services that they would in an area where individuals had HMO, PPO, or POS type insurance coverage. Providers that care for Medicaid recipients are paid less for services than managed care companies pay. Providers of services for Medicaid recipients are "required to accept the Medicaid reimbursement as payment in full" (Swayne, Duncan, & Ginter, 2009, p. 700). Many individuals in the indigent areas will not seek health care until their symptoms have worsened to the point that seeking professional care is required. "Many poor residents delayed getting necessary medical care because they had no health insurance" (Swayne, Duncan, & Ginter, 2009, p. 702). In a large metropolitan area where there are many choices for health care services, facilities have to compete to provide care and increase revenue within their facility. There were 12 hospitals in Birmingham that is in Jefferson County; these hospitals "were scrambling to earn a share of the rapidly developing outpatient market" because of the dwindling number of admission and inpatient census (Swayne, Duncan, & Ginter, 2009, p.703). The cost to care was reduced, but there was a rise in cost to keep up with advanced technologies. Cooper Green Hospital was