Nevada has chosen to expand Medicaid this year and now has around a ½ million residents with Medicaid coverage.  By doing so, this has brought financial relief to many households and some financial relief to our hospitals here in Nevada.  Fewer Nevadan’s are visiting the hospitals without insurance, which in turn relieves hospitals of “charity care” and fewer “self-pay” individuals trying to pay hospital expenses without insurance.

While the number of Nevadans now using their Medicaid coverage relieve some of the charity care expenses a hospital must absorb, it still does not cover all costs to provide the care…but it is helping.

The future will have number crunchers busy for a long time monitoring the trends of how this transition is helping hospitals and households.  For hospitals, they will track the effect of receiving less federal aid for charity work and also for individuals that did not have coverage (but now do with Medicaid), and how much they use their new coverage.

Authorized Agent for:  Nevada Health Link, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Sierra Health and Life, Health Plan of Nevada, Aetna, Prominence Health Plan, Hometown Health, Golden Rule / United Health One