Healthcare

A bill has been introduced in the Senate that would amend both the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to enhance consumer protections related to medical debt. Senate Bill 1581 was introduced yesterday by Sen. Jeff Merkley [D-Ore.] and is being co-sponsored by Sen. Richard …

The Oregon House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill that would alter the amount of interest that a healthcare facility or debt collector can charge on unpaid medical debt, ensure that collectors are following state collection guidelines when collecting on medical debt, and open up charity care and financial assistance …

More consumer advocates and non-profit organizations are looking at the lawsuits filed either by or on behalf of healthcare facilities against individuals who have not paid their medical bills, and making accusations that those lawsuits are being filed against individuals who might be eligible to receive charity care. Collection agencies …

Do you want more evidence that healthcare collections is a good spot to be, at least for the short term? More than 1 million Americans lost their health insurance coverage last year, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, 30 million Americans, about 10% …

President Trump yesterday called for an end to surprise medical billing, when an insured patient receives a bill from a healthcare facility where all or part of the practitioners are not part of the patient’s insurance network. There have been a growing number of stories of individuals who have received …

Twenty-seven percent of respondents to a survey said they or a family member have had problems paying medical bills in the past 12 months, according to a report issued by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which partnered with the Los Angeles Times. Overall, 40% of the survey’s respondents reported an affordability …

A group of eight hospitals in Washington State will forgive $20 million in unpaid medical bills, refund $2.2 million back to patients, pay $2.5 million to the state’s attorney general, and rehabilitate the credit of thousands of individuals who qualified for charity care but did not receive it, according to …

Nearly one-in-eight outpatient medical providers are planning on replacing their revenue cycle management providers during the next 18 months, according to a recently released survey. The survey asked 153 ambulatory service providers a series of questions about the different technology services they used. Twelve percent of those surveyed said they …

The Oklahoma legislature yesterday moved a step closer to enacting a law that will require the state’s Health Care Authority to outsource unpaid debts to a third-party collection agency. Under the law, the OHCA is allowed to place unpaid debts with a third-party agency, but does not normally do so. …

There appears to be a strong correlation between individuals who rent putting off getting medical care because they can not afford it, according to the results of a study that were released yesterday. In the study, more than half of individuals who rent delayed healthcare because they could not afford …