N.y.c. Area News Assured of Kosher Meals During Hospital Stays

Blue Cross and the Greater New York Hospital Association have sent letters to member hospitals in the Greater New York area reaffirming that Blue Cross, Medicare and Medicaid take the position that Jewish patients are entitled to full coverage of requested kosher meals, Julius Berman, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, reported today.

The UOJCA raised the issue last December when Berman said that while most area hospitals do not charge extra for kosher meals, the problem stemmed from the fact that the few hospitals which did so included some of the area’s largest hospitals.

Berman said then that David Merzel, the UOJCA community relations director, had learned about the problem when observant Jews cared for in three hospitals– University Hospital of the New York University Medical Center, New York Hospital and Columbia Hospital — informed the Orthodox organization that they had been billed for extra charges for kosher meals.

Later in December, the National Council of Young Israel, another national association of Orthodox congregations, issued a statement denouncing University Hospital for a “discriminatory” policy in billing observant Jewish patients for kosher meals. On Jan. 8, a hospital spokesman said that, us of that date, the hospital had terminated such billings.

NO SEPARATE CHARGES FOR SPECIAL DIETS

The Hospital Association, in a bulletin dated Jan. 22, addressed to member hospitals, said the matter had been discussed by the association’s Fiscal Policy Committee and a recommendation was made to the association’s Board of Governors at its Jan. 15 meeting “that member hospitals would not make separate charges to patients for special diets,” including kosher meals. The bullet in said “such a resolution was adopted by the board.”

The Blue Cross-Blue Shield memorandum, also dated Jan. 22, was addressed to “chief executive officers of participating hospitals” on the subject of “kosher meals and other special dietetic meals.”

The memorandum said “there is some confusion about reimbursement policy concerning special dietetic meals for patients.” The memorandum added that “kosher meals or other special diets such as vegetarian meals are reimbursable if these diets or meals are approved by a covered patient’s physician to permit the patient to continue with his or her established dietary habits.”

The memorandum also noted that “Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Greater New York has always treated these items as reimbursable costs included in the per diem rote. This policy is consistent with Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement policy as well. Therefore, a patient with Blue Cross, Medicare of Medicaid coverage who receives special diets such as kosher meals should not receive a separate charge for these items.”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has been in formed that hospital memberships in Blue Cross and in the Hospital Association are identical. Medicaid is a largely federally-funded program providing medical and hospital benefits to the indigent, regardless of age. Medicare is a program of such coverage provided to qualified retired Social Security beneficiaries.