Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 40-8.3 - Uncompensated Care

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Base year: means , for the purpose of calculating a disproportionate share payment for any fiscal year ending after September 30, 2021, the period from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020, and for any fiscal year ending after September 30, 2022, the period from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020. See Rhode Island General Laws 40-8.3-2
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Participating hospital: means any nongovernment and nonpsychiatric hospital that:

  (i)  Was licensed as a hospital in accordance with chapter 17 of Title 23 during the base year and shall mean the actual facilities and buildings in existence in Rhode Island, licensed pursuant to § 23-17-1 et seq. See Rhode Island General Laws 40-8.3-2

• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Uncompensated-care costs: means , as to any hospital, the sum of: (i) The cost incurred by the hospital during the base year for inpatient or outpatient services attributable to charity care (free care and bad debts) for which the patient has no health insurance or other third-party coverage less payments, if any, received directly from such patients; and (ii) The cost incurred by the hospital during the base year for inpatient or outpatient services attributable to Medicaid beneficiaries less any Medicaid reimbursement received therefor; multiplied by the uncompensated-care index. See Rhode Island General Laws 40-8.3-2
• Uncompensated-care index: means the annual percentage increase for hospitals established pursuant to § 27-19-14 [repealed] for each year after the base year, up to and including the payment year; provided, however, that the uncompensated-care index for the payment year ending September 30, 2007, shall be deemed to be five and thirty-eight hundredths percent (5. See Rhode Island General Laws 40-8.3-2
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8