As America’s health insurers keep increasing the amount of money their customers must pay out of pocket before their coverage kicks in, more and more patients are unable to pay their hospital bills. As Chris Deacons writes below, hospital administrators are taking a range of actions to collect as much from those patients as possible, often before admitting them.
When I opened this email and saw the familiar "Pay Now" demand, I assumed that it was from the M Health Fairview "healthcare" conglomerate, demanding payment for some upcoming appointment that I had NOT requested, or for some hospital or clinic services I had recently received that had not yet been billed.
With our Medicare and supplemental insurance, there is no charge to us for visits to our primary care physician. Yet every time we make an appointment with him, M Health Fairview sends us an "appointment reminder," DEMANDING that we pay them $45. There is a $45 co-pay for an appointment with a specialist but no co-pay for a visit to our primary care physician.
We also get PAY NOW demands for various imaging or surgical procedures -- even though we have not yet received a bill for them, nor will they tell us what the amount is or what, specifically it is for.
Blaming the insurance industry for copays and deductibles misses the point. Copays and deductibles exist only because of an effort by whomever is paying for the health coverage to reduce paying higher premiums. It is simply cost shifting. If the cost of care was not growing at 2x the rate of inflation, perhaps employers could adsorb more of the premium costs. The issue is cost of care, was cost of care, and will be cost of care. You have to look at how the healthcare provider industry is conducting their business, using their monopoly power to drive up costs, and ignoring their obligations as healthcare organizations to their communities.
Copays were established to reduce unnecessary utilization - something that would make someone think before running to a doctor for every little thing. Not unreasonable - the copy is reasonable.
Deductibles is a concept of making the policy holder responsible for the care and maintenace of the insured item - it is a feature of property and car insurance, like maintain your brakes because you're going to pay for the first $X of the repair costs after the accident. However, applied to health insurance it is a cost shifting tool that hits lower income individuals hard.
Very high deductibles are creating a "deductibles rift" between well-intentioned employers and their employees. It's only going to get worse, until a consumer-based system comes along and helps consumers know where to go and what to pay. Just think, a cost reduction of 16% would completely eliminate the high deductible. Don't expect insurers to lead the way on this.
Susanna Patterson July10
When I opened this email and saw the familiar "Pay Now" demand, I assumed that it was from the M Health Fairview "healthcare" conglomerate, demanding payment for some upcoming appointment that I had NOT requested, or for some hospital or clinic services I had recently received that had not yet been billed.
With our Medicare and supplemental insurance, there is no charge to us for visits to our primary care physician. Yet every time we make an appointment with him, M Health Fairview sends us an "appointment reminder," DEMANDING that we pay them $45. There is a $45 co-pay for an appointment with a specialist but no co-pay for a visit to our primary care physician.
We also get PAY NOW demands for various imaging or surgical procedures -- even though we have not yet received a bill for them, nor will they tell us what the amount is or what, specifically it is for.
Blaming the insurance industry for copays and deductibles misses the point. Copays and deductibles exist only because of an effort by whomever is paying for the health coverage to reduce paying higher premiums. It is simply cost shifting. If the cost of care was not growing at 2x the rate of inflation, perhaps employers could adsorb more of the premium costs. The issue is cost of care, was cost of care, and will be cost of care. You have to look at how the healthcare provider industry is conducting their business, using their monopoly power to drive up costs, and ignoring their obligations as healthcare organizations to their communities.
Copays were established to reduce unnecessary utilization - something that would make someone think before running to a doctor for every little thing. Not unreasonable - the copy is reasonable.
Deductibles is a concept of making the policy holder responsible for the care and maintenace of the insured item - it is a feature of property and car insurance, like maintain your brakes because you're going to pay for the first $X of the repair costs after the accident. However, applied to health insurance it is a cost shifting tool that hits lower income individuals hard.
Very high deductibles are creating a "deductibles rift" between well-intentioned employers and their employees. It's only going to get worse, until a consumer-based system comes along and helps consumers know where to go and what to pay. Just think, a cost reduction of 16% would completely eliminate the high deductible. Don't expect insurers to lead the way on this.
😪 I just don’t have the words 🫤