Hospitals and other health-care organizations provide services knowing that they will collect from third-party payers, such as insurance companies, considerably less than their established billing rates. In addition, they provide services to uninsured patients and are aware that they will collect either none or only a small portion of the amounts to be billed. Comment on how these organizations distinguish between charity care, bad debts, and contractual adjustments, and indicate how each affects the amount of revenue from patient care that they should report.