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Discount changes announced

Friday, Jan. 7, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

HCA Inc., which owns three Las Vegas Valley hospitals, announced Thursday that it has expanded its guidelines for people who qualify for discounted health care.

The new policies, which are effective immediately, apply to uninsured patients whose incomes exceed Medicaid and charity care requirements. There are no minimum or maximum income requirements under the new program that provides discounted rates that are similar to managed-care rates in each market. In Las Vegas, HCA is using an average local preferred-provider organization rate, but declined to say what that rate was for proprietary reasons.

The discount program replaces a sliding scale income requirement that limited discounts to people who earned between 200 percent and 400 percent above the federal poverty level.

HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said the program has been in the works for awhile and is not a response to a lawsuit against HCA's Las Vegas hospitals that alleges that they price-gouged uninsured patients and used predatory collection practices. The case is pending in Clark County District Court.

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