Charity Care for Our Community

You can tell a lot about an organization by the size of its facilities.  Or its staff.

At the same time, you may be able to tell even more by the size of its heart.  And when it comes to charity care, our heart more than measures up.  While operating as a private, not-for-profit health system, WakeMed provides more than 85% of Wake County's charity care.  The health system does not receive city, county or state funding.

Single parents.  Working poor.  The underserved.  Call them what you will.  If they need care, they get it at WakeMed.  Just like everyone else.

Community Benefit

WakeMed's value to the community is significant and is measured in numerous ways - by the amount of charity care provided; the unreimbursed costs incurred to care for Medicare and Medicaid patients; and the value of our outreach activities, volunteer services, and program support.  Reporting these efforts and quantifying their impact is critically important. 

We are pleased to demonstrate how WakeMed, as a not-for-profit organization, is fulfilling its mission of community service and meeting its charitable tax-exempt purpose.  

Direct Community Benefit:  FY 2008  Cost of treating Charity Care patients $58,856,170 Unreimbursed costs of treating Medicare patients $38,668,817 Unreimbursed costs of treating Medicaid patients $24,224,723 Unreimbursed costs of Medical Education and Research $53,913,447 Cash and In-kind community support, outreach activities, health education programs, access improvement programs, facility use, screenings, health fairs, workforce development activities, etc. $8,084,452 TOTAL DIRECT COMMUNITY BENEFIT $183,747,609

WakeMed categorizes charity care as care given to any person who has no third party coverage of any kind and are at poverty levels which prohibit them from paying for their care.  Unreimbursed cost of treating Medicare and Medicaid patients is the difference between government reimbursement and the hospital's actual cost to provide that care.  Bad debt is primarily comprised of the charges for care for those patients who have some type of third party coverage but are unable to pay their co-pays and deductibles.

(Guidelines developed by the VHA and the Catholic Health Association, as well as the North Carolina Hospital Association are used in the calculation and data collection for this report.)