CHI St. Joseph Health expects to lose $165 million dollars this year in caring for low-income patients.
That information was in a CHI application that was approved at the last Brazos County commissioner’s court meeting, where the hospital will receive federal assistance to require pharmacies to discount products used in uncompensated and charitable cases.
The director of government relations for CHI’s Texas division, Tim Ottinger, says that’s one of the ways they recover some of their costs.
Ottinger says “the ideal opportunity is to keep healthy people from getting sick, to manage their diabetes or their hypertension or those issues that can cause problems.”
CHI St. Joseph and all the other hospitals in Brazos County also participate in a program that provides supplemental Medicaid funding.
Click below for comments from Tim Ottinger, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver: