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"For years, hospitals and surgery centers waited to perform procedures before sending bills to patients. That often left them chasing after patients for payment, repeatedly sending invoices and enlisting debt collectors.
Now, more hospitals and surgery centers are demanding patients pay in advance.
Advance billing helps the facilities avoid hounding patients to settle up. Yet it is distressing patients who must come up with thousands of dollars while struggling with serious conditions."
Make sure that your Health Savings Account maintains a sufficient balance to pay your deductible.
That hedge fund that owns your local hospital must be paid first.
This issue seems to be with patients who have high-deductible health insurance, who haven't met their deductible yet. So they will have to pay the full cost (or the full allowable charge, if the provider contracts with the patient's insurance). So the hospital has decided to collect these charges up front, rather than after the fact. Remember, insurance doesn't pay anything until whatever the annual deductible is has been met.
This is nothing new. It has been a practice for years. Perhaps it is becoming more common?
Can you buy a car without arranging payment first?
Right. There's this health insurance process called pre-certification...
OK, it might not be completed up front in an emergency situation so I can see that being rather concerning for a patient! Scary as it is, sometimes you do need to let the system work.
It looks as though these hospitals and other healthcare facilities are requiring patients to pay their out of pocket or deductible amounts their insurance won't pay ahead of time. This has been the practice in most places for many years now. If these people have very high deductibles, they'll be pre-paying a pretty penny for their surgeries or procedures.
They might try discussing a payment plan with the facility if they can't come up with the entire amount at once.
Now, more hospitals and surgery centers are demanding patients pay in advance.
Probably a reaction to having been burnt in the past. Eliminates the need to write off bad debts, which can be sizable due to the nature of the services provided. Just a sound fiscal move, rather than an intentional inconveniencing of patients.
Makes sense to me. Medical care is a business like any other that needs cash flow to continue operating. Is the health care system in the US broken and corrupt - yes. But in providing a service to a paying customer they shouldn't be acting as a bank or financial institution. That's probably one reason why costs are getting so high.
As an aside, I think a fair amount of "surgeries" really aren't necessary (not life and death emergencies). And many that do take place are done on patients that are already so far gone and unhealthy that it's honestly not worth it on a financial level. Why should a hospital have to foot the bill for a 300-pounder crippled with diabetes who just had another stroke?
It looks as though these hospitals and other healthcare facilities are requiring patients to pay their out of pocket or deductible amounts their insurance won't pay ahead of time. This has been the practice in most places for many years now. If these people have very high deductibles, they'll be pre-paying a pretty penny for their surgeries or procedures.
They might try discussing a payment plan with the facility if they can't come up with the entire amount at once.
My daughter in law's knee surgery entailed a significant out of pocket cost. The hospital put it on a one year payment plan. It was easy to set up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by heavymind
Makes sense to me. Medical care is a business like any other that needs cash flow to continue operating. Is the health care system in the US broken and corrupt - yes. But in providing a service to a paying customer they shouldn't be acting as a bank or financial institution. That's probably one reason why costs are getting so high.
As an aside, I think a fair amount of "surgeries" really aren't necessary (not life and death emergencies). And many that do take place are done on patients that are already so far gone and unhealthy that it's honestly not worth it on a financial level. Why should a hospital have to foot the bill for a 300-pounder crippled with diabetes who just had another stroke?
My daughter in law recently had knee surgery for a ligament injury. She was miserable before the surgery, but it was not "life or death". Does that mean the procedure was not "necessary"? After all, she could have just continued to be miserable for the rest of her life.
My daughter in law's knee surgery entailed a significant out of pocket cost. The hospital put it on a one year payment plan. It was easy to set up.
Well, your daughter in law paid for that 'loan' somehow. Or everybody did, which is why health care costs are so outrageously high, every single thing nickel & dimed. Like being invoiced for Tylenol at $28 a dose. Hospitals aren't banks and they don't offer payment plans out of the goodness of their heart - someone made money off that loan.
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