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If you go to private-for-profit St. Joseph Hospital in Parkersburg for
non-emergency room care, you'd better get ready to ante up some some cash for
a co-payment.
Four HCA West Virginia hospitals, part of a 191 chain, have been ordered by their
CEO to collect at least partial payment of insurance co-payments and
deductibles before providing non-emergency care.
The Nashville-based company, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, owns
St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, Putnam General Hospital in Hurricane, Raleigh
General Hospital in Beckley and St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg.
HCA says when a patient can't pay the full co-payment amount, the hospitals
should have a method of figuring a minimum down payment.
While an estimated 50 million Americans have no insurance and millions of others
are under-insured, the HCA policy is directed toward individuals who do have
insurance coverage, a method commonly known as cost-shifting, or paying for
those who don't or can't pay.
There is a nationwide trend of unpaid hospital bills, which costs hospitals billions
of dollars every year.
HCA has reported that first-quarter earnings fell 26 percent from a year ago
because it treated more patients unable to pay their hospital bills. | 
