RI hospitals get stimulus funds to care for poor

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island hospitals will get $1.5 million from the federal stimulus plan to treat low-income patients.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Friday that the money would go to Ocean State hospitals with disproportionately high numbers of poor or uninsured patients.

The hospitals usually receive federal funding each year to offset the cost of caring for people without health insurance.

Nationwide, the stimulus plan boosted allotments to these hospitals by more than $250 million to $11 billion for 2009.