Hospital Corporation of America and Subsidiaries - Page 7

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          patient agreements.  The hospital generally requires each patient           
          to agree to pay for all charges incurred while in the hospital              
          upon demand by the hospital.  Medicare,7 Blue Cross, health                 
          maintenance organization (HMO), and some other insurance plan               
          patients, however, are responsible only for a copayment.8                   
               For acute care hospital patients, the nurses and patient               
          attendants perform a wide variety of services, including, but not           
          limited to, assisting physicians during patient examinations and            
          medical procedures and treatments, administering medications,               
          preparing and operating specialized equipment used in treating              
          patients, monitoring patients' conditions, serving meals to                 
          patients and regulating and monitoring their food intake,                   
          assisting in bathing patients, and helping them into and out of             
          bed.  Nurses and other hospital personnel also are involved in              
          surgical procedures performed at a hospital.  If an acute care              
          hospital maintains a delivery room and obstetric care and newborn           
          care units, delivery room nurses and other staff employees assist           
          the physician in the delivery of newborn infants, provide daily             


          7                                                                           
               During the years involved, petitioners received                        
          reimbursements from Medicare equal to 35 percent to 43 percent of           
          the total operating revenues reported on the Forms 10-K filed               
          with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).                          
          8                                                                           
               When Medicare is the third-party payer, hospitals can                  
          collect only the "Medicare co-payments" from patients.  Should              
          the total payments from Medicare and the patient not equal the              
          total amount billed to the patient, the hospital is not allowed             
          to collect the difference from the patient.                                 



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