University Hospitals Authority

The University Hospitals Authority (UHA) was created to operate the University Hospitals on the Oklahoma Health Center campus in Oklahoma City and to ensure that the hospitals support the teaching and research missions of the University of Oklahoma. UHA manages no programs of its own and has zero employees. Instead, UHA serves as a conduit for appropriations for various entities such as OU Health, OU Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma Health Care Authority, Hearts for Hearing and the Oklahoma Dental Foundation. In 1997, legislation was enacted to privatize the operations of the hospitals under the University Hospitals Trust (UHT). As part of the privatization agreement of the hospitals, the contracted joint operator is required to provide indigent care, defined statutorily as uncompensated Medicaid, charity and Department of Corrections inmate care, in an amount equal to 120% of the subsidy it receives from UHA. Hospital services are provided to the Department of Corrections free of charge.