(a) Hospitals shall disclose to the Department of Public Health the following information in the form of reports to be filed annually with the Department within 120 days after the end of each hospital's fiscal year.
1. The dollar amount of charity care provided during the prior year as specified by the Department, after adjustment by the Cost-to-Charge ratio. Each hospital shall file a calculation of its Ratio of Costs-to-Charges with its report. Figures representing bad debt shall not be included in the amount reported.
2. The total number of applications, patient and third party requests for charity care, and the total number of hospital acceptances and denials for charity care received and decided during the prior year; the zip code of each patient's residence on each such acceptance and denial, and the number of individuals seeking, applying, or otherwise eligible for charity care who were referred to other medical facilities along with the identification of the facility to which the individuals were referred.
3. The total number of patients who received hospital services within the prior year reported as being charity care and whether those services were for emergency, inpatient or outpatient medical care, or for ancillary services.
4. All charity care policies, including but not limited to explanations regarding the availability of charity care and the time periods and procedures for eligibility, application, determination, and appeal; any application or eligibility forms used, and the hospital locations and hours at which the information may be obtained by the general public.
5. Such other information as the Department shall require.
(Added by Ord. 163-01, File No. 010142, App. 7/20/2001)