Evening star., 1948-12-10

what the permit bureau determines
they can afford.
The second proposes that the per-
NIT bureau be able to declare as
eligible fer District payment to hos
pitfalls those patients who fall within
whatever income ranges determine
eligibility at Gallinger. This SIM
ply would place eligibility on the
same basis the permit bureau used
before July.
Changes Proposed.
The department proposed at the
same time that the 1916 income
ranges for determining eligibility be
changed in accordance with in
creased living costs.
At the base of most of the policy
changes and conflicts, however, is
the fact that the Commissioners
have given neither the hospitals nor
the Health Department a clear-cut
definition of what they should mean
by the term "indigent."
The new contracts leave the def
milton largely up to the 1916 order
or to future amendments to it. In a
letter to the Commissioners, Health
Officer George C. Ruhland wrote
that 1T is imperative that Commis-
sioners' orders clearly define stand
ards to be used in determining in
digency"
Commissioner Guy Mason has told
reporters that patients above the
minimum income standards who
are able to pay part of their ex-
penses fall outside the meaning OF
the word "indigent." To pay hos
pitals for treating them, he con-
tends, would require new legisla-
ton.
Yet the District paid three hos
pitals last year for treating such
patients.
Definition Called For.
Mr.. Mason has asked the Corpora
ton Counsel to study the entire
matter and come up with defini-
ton of indigency. Meanwhile, this
is the strange situation that exists
The new contracts order private
hospitals to collect from patients
whatever they can and to turn the
money over to the District. But the
permit bureau is refusing to certify
for District payment any patients
who can pay anything at all toward
their hospital bills.
Several hospitals already have
signed and returned the long delayed
contracts because they desperately
need the claims they have filed dur
ing the last few months to pay their
own creditors. But in signing the
agreements. the hospitals have
lodged a clear-cut protest against
present policies.
The Hospital Council of the Ma
tional Capital Area, in a letter to
the Commissioners, expressed the
view that "indigents" should include
low-income patients, even If they pay
part Of their bills.
- Letter to City Heads.
Daniel w. O'Donoghue, jr., at
torney who represented the hos
pitfalls in appearances before Con-
gress several months ago, Endorsed
DR.. Ruhland's proposals in effect
and asked that the District define
an INDECENT person as meaning a
medically INDECENT person" In re-
turning signed contracts from Prov
idence Hospital, Mr.. ODonoghue
wrote to the city heads:
Il think it is now generally real
lied that an employed person, max
ing enough to pay rent and provide
food and clothes for his family, may
when illness strikes, be just as in
digent $50 far as having anything
to pay for disqualification is con-
cerned as the public assistance
case, whose rent and subsistence
is being paid for by the Board of
Public Welfare.
THE fact that such employed
persons may be able and willing to
contribute so cents towards the cost
of a clinic visit or a few dollars to-
wards the heavy cost Of hospital
bed care would not seem to make
him any the less deserving or less
entitled to tax-flnanced
hospital aid than the public assist
ance case.
"I think you will agree that the
community has an equal interest
in seeing that such a patient gets
the hospital services he needs
whether he goes to Gallinger or is
brought to a voluntary hospital as
an emergency case, and that in
the latter case the private hospital
should be reimbursed from the funds
provided by Congress for this
purpose"