The Nation - News from Dec. 2, 1986

Docking Social Security recipients for unpaid hospital bills would save Medicare $140 million a year, Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Richard Kusserow said in a report to Congress. He estimated that Medicare pays $240 million a year to hospitals for debts incurred by “thousands of Medicare beneficiaries who do not pay their deductible and coinsurance amounts for hospital in-patient stays.” The hospitals are reimbursed so the costs will not be shifted to non-Medicare patients, the report said.