PROVIDENCE — The state Department of Health estimates that Rhode Island hospitals provided $26 million in unpaid-for health care in 2006 — a figure vehemently disputed by the state’s hospital association, which pegs the amount at $124.9 million.

The department, in a report released last week, said the $26 million represents care to the needy or those who wouldn’t pay what was not covered by federal subsidies or money the individual hospitals have set aside to pay for care to those who can’t afford it. That was a $1.4-million increase from 2005, the department said. The department said its analysis took the cost of care into account and then subtracted the money it said was available to hospitals to cover those expenses.

But the Hospital Association of Rhode Island ripped the state’s conclusions, saying the report’s figures “grossly” understate the amount of uncompensated care its member hospitals provide.

“The methodology and data used in the report is significantly flawed,” hospital association president Edward J. Quinlan declared in a statement Friday. “Using data provided to the Rhode Island Department of Health by hospitals, HARI has calculated uncompensated care to total $124.9 million in 2006, an increase of 16 percent from 2005.”

“We are concerned this report may generate confusion about this important issue,” Quinlan said. “As the State of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island General Assembly continue to address difficult budget and policy issues, this report does a disservice to policymakers. We urge the department to rescind this report until it accurately reflects the uncompensated care provided by hospitals.”

The Health Department report said uncompensated care generally comes in one of two categories. One is charity care, when a hospital willingly provides medical services to someone who can’t afford it and never expects to be paid. The other is bad debt, when someone simply does not pay their bill, either because they can’t or they dispute it.

While the department said the overall amount of uncompensated care at Rhode Island’s 13 hospitals increased by $1.4 million from 2005 to 2006, its examination indicated that, as a share of overall revenues, the cost of uncompensated care remained slightly more than 1 percent both years — 1.06 percent in 2005 and 1.05 percent in 2006.

Among individual hospitals, the report said, increases as a percentage of patient revenue ranged from 0.6 percent at Women & Infants Hospital, in Providence, to 3.2 percent at South County Hospital, in South Kingstown. It said two hospitals, Providence’s Roger Williams Medical Center and Pawtucket’s Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, took in more in subsidies than they provided in uncompensated care.

“Hospitals are an important part of the health-care safety net and provide a large amount of uncompensated care as a benefit to the community,” said Ana Novais, executive director of the Health Department’s Division of Community Health and Equity, in a statement released with the document. “This report provides Rhode Islanders with a more comprehensive picture of the actual expenses of uncompensated care to hospitals after acknowledging the subsidies they receive to compensate them for these unreimbursed services.”

jhill@projo.com