Hospital “Advance Billing” A Killer To Some

And you thought your typical hospital experience was a “nightmare,” wait until they refuse to do surgeries unless you pay in full first & whether or not you like paying $25 or more for an aspirin.

The WSJ article explained that the growing trend toward hospital “advance billing” is being justified on the ground “the facilities [thereby] avoid chasing [deadbeat] patients to pay after their procedures.” So much for the “patient comes first” commercials. One survey cited says about 23% of what patients owe is now collected by hospitals before treatment. Of course, this “pay to play” medicine may be preferrable to some, i.e., rather than having the hospitals sic their collection agencies on you. Yet, as the WSJ notes, “it is distressing patients who must [often] come up with thousands of dollars while struggling with serious conditions … Those who can’t come up with the sums have been forced to put off procedures … Some who paid up discovered later they were overcharged, then, had to fight for refunds … Among the procedures that hospitals & surgery centers are seeking prepayments for are knee replacements”, even though such patients aren’t running away anytime soon or at least until a lengthy rehab period unfolds.

You may have read that federal law requires hospitals to take care of folks in an emergency, so the advance billing will typically be limited to non-life-threatening scenarios. And, in truth, many “patients want to know in advance what their medical care will cost so they can plan for it … or, make sure their blood sucking health insurance plan, if they have one, will cover it all. Still, there’s the gruesome stat that says, “half of adults say they can’t afford to spend more than $500 on medical care should they be suddenly sick or injured.”

Davd Soul