Thursday, January 08, 2004
Hospital discounts for those that don't need it
From Democracy Now!:
Hospitals negotiate discounts with big institutions such as insurance companies or the government that require payment of only a fraction of the listed charges. These institutions have strong bargaining power and can guarantee hospitals a certain number of patients.
Uninsured patients, on the other hand, have no bargaining power and aren't even told that big institutions get these reduced rates. As a result they end up with huge medical bills and no way of paying them.
Hospitals then hound those patients for payment using collection agencies and lawyers who use such methods as filing lawsuits, slapping liens on homes, seizing bank accounts, and garnishing wages to extract payment.
Part of the reason the uninsured cannot pay their medical bills is because hospitals aren't informing them about available resources and charity care.
For example, a few states operate a funding pool for hospitals to offset the money they spend on charity care as well as their bad debt. The total amount of money in the pool in New York State is approximately $847 million a year.
The transcript.
posted by chris at 3:26 PM
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