Evening star., 1948-10-26
ID. {. Contracts
On Indigents at
Hospitals Drawn
Go to City Heads
Soon for Approval
After Long DeIoy
By GEORGE Beveridoe

Long-delayed contracts that would
allow the District to pay Wash
ington hospitals Immediately well
over 100000 for treating INDECENT
patients will reach the Commission
ers for approval within the next
few days" it was reported today.
Henry E. Wixon, assistant corpo-
ration counsel, who has been work.
ing on the controversial contracts
for nine hospitals here, said the
agreements have been finished and
will be handed to the city heads
this week.
How long it will be before the
hospitals get the urgently needed
money, however, will depend on the
speed with which the Commission
ers approve the contracts and get
them signed by the hospitals.
S735,000 Appropriated.
Congress appropriated s735 900 to
pay the hospitals for the emergency
treatment of INDECENT patients, who
normally would be treated at tax
supported Gallinger Hospital The
payments, to begin after July l.,
were set at a top rate of SO for
each day of bed care and So for
each clinic visit.
While hospitals have submitted
claims for July, August and Septem-
ber, however, all payments have
been held up until the contracts
were drawn to spell out exactly the
type of care for which the District
intends to pay.
Health Department officials re-
vealed that seven of the nine hos
pitfalls have submitted claims total
ing $112,868 for the three-month
period beginning in July. While
the claims have been approved, they
will be contingent on provisions Of
the contracts.
Deficiency Fund Asked.
At the same time, Henry S.
Gavens, administrative officer of the
Health Department. disclosed the
department has asked the Commis-
sioners to request deficiency ap-
preparation of about $1O2, 900 to pay
Emergency, Casualty and Children S
Hospitals for treating indigents
during the year that ended June 30
The three-only' hospitals which
had contracts with the District last
year - submitted claims totaling
$422. .742 officials said. but available
appropriations covered only S320, 900.
The long delay in submitting the
new contracts, meanwhile. has drawn
complaints from some hospitals that
they expected payments at the end
of July and that they need the funds
desperately to meet high hospital
costs.
Health Department officials said
the $112,868 in approved claims has
been ''piling up at the District audi
tors desk" and can be paid as soon
as the contracts finally are signed.
Amounts for Hospitals.
The amounts claimed and ap-
proved by the seven hospitals for
the three-month period, officials
said, are:
Emergency, s2s, ,SS5; Casualty. $22,-
$50: Children's. $37,051; Episcopal,
$5,177; Georgetown. s6,215; Provi-
.dence. $l1,482, and Garfield, Slot.
George Washington University
Hospital, which has an ALLEGATION of
1884 for this fiscal year, has SUBJ
mitted claims only for clinic visits,
officials said. The ninth hospital,
Columbia, which has an ALLEGATION
of $2,980, hasn't submitted any
claims at all so far, according to
the department.
The hospital claims are approved
only for patients who meet District
residence standards and income re-
quirements for establishing indi-
gency. Some hospital administra-
tors feel the standards are so rigid,
however, that the approved claims
will not nearly equal the appropri-
alton granted by Congress.
The Garfield claim Of $1.107, for
example, is very small part of the
s47.9l8 the Health Department esti-
mated would be claimed during this
fiscal year by the hospital.
Arkell B. Cook, Garfield admin
istrator, said his hospital has made
it "a hard and fast rule" that indi-
gents eligible for care at Gallinger
be admitted "only in real emer-
gencies' and that they be trans
ferred to Gallinger as soon as their
conditions warrant.