Healthcare

Another mainstream media has shined its spotlight on surprise medical bills, but this time naming a collection agency that had the audacity to try and collect on debts that were placed with it. Nobody argues that surprise medical bills aren’t a problem. For those who aren’t aware, a surprise medical …

Medical debt is getting the mainstream media spotlight today, largely due to a study that sought to determine if there is a correlation between individuals who incur a significant amount of medical debt and those individuals having to file for bankruptcy protection. Nearly 60% of individuals who filed for bankruptcy …

A newly released study details the wide variations not only in the cost of a medical procedure, but the vast differences in how much a patient pays out of pocket and how much the patient’s insurance company pays for the same procedure at different hospitals. The Pioneer Institute evaluated the …

A bill has been introduced in the Oregon legislature that seeks to govern how hospitals and healthcare facilities handle charity care, but also includes several provisions related to how unpaid medical debts are collected. House Bill 3076 was introduced earlier this week by state Rep. Andrea Salinas, a Democrat. The …

Sen. Chuck Grassley [R-Iowa] has written a letter to the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service seeking, among other things, information about the debt collection practices at non-profit hospitals nationwide. The information is part of a broader examination into making sure that non-profit hospitals “are fulfilling the standards for serving …

The California state legislature is considering a bill that would prohibit hospitals in the Golden State from charging an individual more than his or her co-payment or deductible, regardless of whether the hospital was in the patient’s insurance network or not. The objective of the bill is to end the …

While not likely a surprise to anyone, healthcare spending is expected to continue growing for at least the next decade, and the numbers are pretty astronomical, according to a report from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Health expenditures are expected to double …

Like companies in the credit and collection industry, rural hospitals have been facing a crisis and consolidation in recent years, but there might be an opportunity for collection agencies to help those facilities as that crisis is expected to worsen, according to a report that was released yesterday. More than …

Healthcare facilities could be recovering as much as 10% of their total amount of bad debt if they were to look and see if individuals who are receiving Medicare are also eligible to receive coverage from Medicaid, according to an analysis of 50,000 cost reports conducted by TransUnion. That equates …

More hospitals and healthcare facilities are rolling out payment plans for individuals, and could go a long way toward recovering some of the $7.5 billion or so of medical debt that goes unpaid every year, according to the results of a survey conducted by PYMNTS.com. Only 26.6% of the respondents …