Marathon Bombing Victims Offered Relief By Health Insurers, Hospitals

Patients injured in last week's bombings near the finish line at the Boston Marathon are poised to get a little help from their health insurance companies and the hospitals that treated them.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care won't charge marathon bombing victims co-payments or other out-of-pocket costs related to their hospital care, the Boston Globe reports.

The health insurance companies also are making arrangements to ensure that patients have access to ongoing medical services, including mental health counseling, when they leave the hospital, according to the newspaper.

Boston medical facilities like Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Tufts Medical Center, which took in some of the more than 280 injured marathon participants and spectators, also may waive some charges, the Boston Globe reports.

Massachusetts General Hospital is holding off on billing any patients and has experienced good cooperation from the health insurance companies covering the patients who do have benefits, spokeswoman Sally Mason Beomer told The Huffington Post Tuesday.

Under Massachusetts' unique health care system , 96 percent of state residents had some form of health insurance to protect them from extreme health care costs as of 2011. Massachusetts also has a safety net program for uninsured or under-insured people who receive care in the state, whether they are residents or not.

Health insurance and safety net benefits may not cover all of the future expenses for follow-up treatment, rehabilitation and other needs that some bombing victims may incur, however.

Donations are flowing into the One Boston Fund -- which has raised more than $20 million so far -- and other initiatives set up to benefit the bombing victims and their families, including personal pleas from people injured in the explosions.