University of Virginia Library

Hospital Gives Free Services
To State Indigent Patients

By CINDI STUART

The University Hospital
provided free services
amounting to $1,503,808 to
hospitalized indigent patients
of 29 cities and 68 counties of
Virginia during 1972.

The city was the largest
recipient of free hospital
service, according to hospital
statistics, netting $198,464
while the next highest amount
covered residents of Albemarle
County, $160,881.

These figures refer to costs
incurred in the hospitalization
of indigent patients and do not
include those of free service to
indigent outpatients seen in the
hospital's clinics and
emergency room.

According to Hospital
Assistant Controller James F.
Grimes Jr., these figures
measure hospital bills but not
doctor bills. Most indigent
patients are serviced by the
hospital house staff, consisting
of interns and residents who do
not charge the patients.

Defines 'Indigent'

A medically indigent person
as defined by State statute is
one who "by himself or by
those upon whom he is
dependent, is unable to pay for
the hospitalization required."
The recipient of medical
assistance need not necessarily
be on welfare, Mr. Grimes said,
and added that each case in
based on an individual's own
merits.

Money Differential

"The money appropriated
to the hospital by the state is
not appropriated for any
specific patient or type of
patient," Mr. Grimes said, but
is used to make up any
difference between what is
spent on patient care and the
amount that is taken in.

Free services are extended
to persons found to be indigent
or medically indigent by
standards established by the
state Health Department and
the State Welfare and