WellStar Kennestone Hospital
Customer Complaint Process
HISTORY
In 1946, Congress passed the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, sponsored by Senators Lister Hill and Harold Burton, widely known as the Hill-Burton Act. Originally designed to provide Federal grants to modernize hospitals, facilities receiving these federal funds agreed to provide free or reduced charge medical services to persons unable to pay. There are several basic requirements that every Hill-Burton hospital or other facility must comply with to fulfill the community service obligation:
? A person residing in the Hill-Burton facility's service area has the right to medical treatment at the facility without regard to race, color, national origin or creed.
? Hill-Burton facilities must participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs unless they are ineligible to participate.
? Hill-Burton facilities must make arrangements for reimbursement for services with principal State and local third-party payors that provide reimbursement that is not less than the actual cost of the services.
? A Hill-Burton facility must post notices informing the public of its community service obligations in English and Spanish. If 10 percent or more of the households in the service area usually speak a language other than English or Spanish, the facility must translate the notice into that language and post it as well.
? A Hill-Burton facility may not deny emergency services to any person residing in the facility's service area on the grounds that the person is unable to pay for those services.
? A Hill-Burton facility may not adopt patient admissions policies that have the effec ...