Healthcare

All of the published reports highlighting the hospital networks, especially non-profit facilities, which have been filing lawsuits against former patients with unpaid debts has made its way to Washington, D.C., and the federal government appears ready to do something about it. During a speech last week to the American Hospital …

Fewer people had health insurance coverage in 2018 than did in 2017, according to data released yesterday by the Census Bureau, likely because more people are working and are no longer qualifying for Medicaid coverage. The data for 2019 is also looking like more individuals are going without health insurance. …

As many emergency room employees will likely be able to confirm, the expansion of Medicaid has increased the number of emergency room visits, indicating that individuals are still using emergency rooms for non-emergency issues, according to a study released yesterday by the Brookings Institute. Individuals who received Medicaid coverage visited …

The University of Virginia Health System is the latest hospital network to get the “suing too much” treatment from a local media outlet, with the Washington Post pointing out that it has filed more than 36,000 lawsuits seeking to recover $106 million in unpaid bills during the six-year period ending …

A pair of published reports look at what happens when individuals have unpaid debts, either those owed to a state or those owed to a healthcare organization, when what can be done by those entities to collect on those debts. The reports are part of a growing number of news …

A pair of medical facilities have come forward and added their names to the list of companies affected by a data breach at American Medical Collection Agency, expanding the list of compromised individuals by 150,000. More than 24 million individuals have been affected by the breach, which occurred when an …

The complicated intersection of hospital pricing, health insurance, and access to adequate healthcare facilities is driving a spike in the number of lawsuits being filed by hospitals seeking to recover unpaid debts from former patients, according to a pair of published reports, including one from The New York Times. In …

Conifer Health Solutions has announced its plan to close an office in Tacoma, Wash., and lay off 169 employees. The revenue cycle management company filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Washington State Employment Security Department on Aug. 14. “Conifer has made the decision to transition its business …

A local newspaper going after the local hospital for suing local residents over unpaid medical bills is very much en vogue right now, happening in Virginia, Oklahoma, New York, Tennessee, and other places across the country. But full credit goes to the Washington Post for doing the best job at …

Healthcare spending in the United States is projected to increase by $2.5 trillion in the next decade, rising to $6 trillion, and a large chunk of that will come from inpatient procedures at hospitals, according to a report from UnitedHealth Group. Moderating the increases in prices from hospitals and physicians …