ER to run credit checks

[Roland99]

ER to run credit checks
Hospital wants to know what bills might be hard to collect.
http://www.theherald-nc.com/2010/09/08/15767/er-to-run-credit-checks.html

At their August meeting, Johnston Health leaders agreed to run credit checks to gauge patients' ability to pay their medical bill. But even patients with bad credit will get medical treatment in emergencies, they said.

Other hospitals check their patients' credit reports too, said Edward Klein, chief financial officer for Johnston Health. The question hospital leaders debated is whether to notify patients when the hospital runs a credit check. The administration is expected to make that decision.

Hospitals often extend credit to patients who don't pay their bill on the spot. Getting a glimpse of credit histories, including credit-card balances, will give the hospital a sense of patients' financial health, Klein said.

"If someone has the financial ability to pay a hospital bill, I want to use all the means available to go after that," he said.

Is this before or after a person is diagnosed?!?!

[Winterblues]

1. USA...USA...USA...USA...USA

Makes one proud to be American don't ya think?

[RKP5637]

2. Yeah, ain't this just the greatest place in the world!

:sarcasm:

[roguevalley]

11. I can only hope these people die of the worst possible diseases

available to our species and that someone does a credit check on them too.

[Obamanaut]

15. My post 13. nt

[RKP5637]

19. This is why we have to be ever vigilant, because if/as American slides down

a notch some accept this as the new, ain't American great, and one day we wake up and find we've fallen off the ladder of greatness, sliding down notch by notch, each accepted as the new status quo.

[Obamanaut]

13. But on the other hand, one rarely reads of 'honor killing' for adultery

in the US, or death by stone, or ethnic cleansing - and there's this from an earlier DU thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=9094575

Have you considered that there are more folks sneaking in than sneaking out - or even boldly leaving. Now, why do you think that is?

[cognoscere]

20. Jeez, don't give those assholes any more ideas.

After they get murder of abortion doctors legalized, it's just a stone's throw to the atrocities you mentioned.

[bobbolink]

28. !!!

:applause:

[Fumesucker]

34. People are "sneaking in" from places like France, the UK, Germany, Sweden?

I had no idea, it's really amazing the things you can learn on DU..

[Obamanaut]

40. I didn't know that either. I just checked my post, and it doesn't mention

from whence anyone sneaks - just that the sneaking exists.

But surely you have heard of the undocumented worker situation, haven't you?

People come illegally from the southern border. People come (from various countries) via work or student visas which expire, then remain, becoming at that time illegal.

People come (from various countries) under the guise of marriage, the marriage falls apart prior to them becoming citizens and they remain, becoming at that time illegal.

People come into places like Arizona (it's been in the news, you know) without paperwork of any sort, and they remain - and are not only remain illegally but were illegal from the get-go.

[Fumesucker]

41. So people are not coming from other Western democracies..

They are coming from third world hellholes, several of which are that way at least partly due to US interference in their internal affairs.

Thanks for clarifying that.

When people start flooding into the USA from places like France, Germany and Finland then I think we might have something to brag about, the US being better than Mexico is like Democrats being better than the Republicans, it's a bar set so low you'd need an excavator to even see it.

[Obamanaut]

45. You are surely aware that 'coming from various countries' and

"...not coming from other Western democracies..." are not exactly the same thing?

If one takes one set of words, and jiggles them around so they are completely changed sorta changes the meaning, don't you think.

Posts 1 and 2 imply the US is a sucky place to come to, yet many are still coming, and many millions remain. Since we don't know them all, we cannot know their motivation for coming or remaining, just that they do.

I enjoy the posts/statements by people whose theme is "the US really sucks" all the while typing on a computer IN the US, and probably not packing the stuff in their mom's basement prepratory to their imminent departure.

[Fumesucker]

48. I'm a grandfather..

My mom has been dead for over forty years..

Got stereotypes?

[Obamanaut]

52. And oh look, you are not the author of posts 1 and 2. nt

[Lorien]

44. Um, my doctor is employed by Homeland Security

she works with immigration and gets stats on a regular basis. Immigration is way, way down from 2000 and continues to go down every year. People don't want to come here anymore, and more and more Americans are leaving for places like Costa Rica, Panama, Canada, and New Zealand.

[Obamanaut]

46. Um when the outflow is greater than the influx, then will be the time to

think there is a serious problem.

[missheidi]

3. "But even patients with bad credit will get medical treatment in emergencies, they said."

If you're in the Emergency Room, isn't it an EMERGENCY??? Doesn't that pretty much rule out what they want to do?

[CatholicEdHead]

5. I believe that is law, ERs cannot refuse treatment to anyone

[EFerrari]

9. They do, though, all the time.

I went to an ER with a head injury a few years ago. They did everything possible to turn me away besides call a cab. I had to call a friend to come and support me in order to force them to provide anything like care.

[KT2000]

39. The law says that the ER

is required to stabilize a person in a life threatening situation. They are not required to treat beyond that.
The law was changed to reflect this.

[dgibby]

7. Not necessarily.

I was an RN for 35+ years, and you'd be surprised at what some folks think constitutes an emergency: colds, scratches, sprains, bruises, etc. We saw all of them, but I guarantee they went to the back of the line.

As for the bad credit, I noticed they didn't define type/scope/quality of treatment.

[Saphire]

35. no, not always an emergency, just the only way to get the care they need.

that's why our ER's are so backed up these days. People use them for care that they should be able to get from a GP, but don't always have enough money.

This is why we need universal health care...not the watered down crap we ended up with.

[Dr.Phool]

4. Kick!

This is about as fucked up as it gets.

I guess too many of them are getting caught defrauding Medicare eg:Rick Scott, Bill Frist, so they want to make sure they can milk everything else.

[prolesunited]

6. Insurance companies and hospitals

are the *real* death panels.

[dgibby]

8. Amen to that!

Only in America are we mandated to pay corps to kill us.

[woo me with science]

10. This is evil. nt

[Lucian]

12. "I have this lump on my breast. I'm afraid it may be cancer."

Hospital: "Well, we just ran your credit and it's bad. Go somewhere else."

What a GREAT country we live in. :sarcasm: :grr:

[eilen]

36. Technically, a lump on a breast is not an emergency

They may do a biopsy but will more likely refer her to doctor to order tests who will then refer her to an oncologist.

A heart attack or chest pain is an emergency. Shortness of breath/fluid overload is an emergency. A car accident/injury or gunshot wound is an emergency. Sudden back pain and leg weakness is an emergency. Acute abdominal pain is an emergency. A suicide attempt is an emergency. A headache that won't go away, accompanied by vertigo and/or mental status changes is an emergency. A fracture is an emergency. Having no urine output for a day or peeing red or brown is an emergency. Acute pain is an emergency. Diarrhea and/or vomiting for more than 2 days is an emergency. Very high blood pressure that won't be controlled by medication is an emergency.

Some advanced infections need IV antibiotics and some anemias need blood transfusions-- I wish there were 24 hr public infusion centers that MDs could send their patients to instead of the ED's with short stay accommodations. Some hospitals have opened observation units but those are mostly used for ED overflow.

Sore throats, sinus infections, ear aches, sprains, allergies, etc-- those are not emergencies. They may be urgent, thus go to urgent care center.

The hospitals are pretty overloaded. They discharge often too early and then get rebounders back in the ED. That is because we also have beds held up for months on patients we can't place. One lady-- I'll call her May, on an acute care floor has Alzheimers, is violent at times so her nursing home kicked her out to us-- sent her to the ED for "mental status changes" and we have had her on the floor since April. We can't get a facility to take her. She has no family that is capable to taking care of her. What do we do with the Mays of the world? Medicaid does not cover chronic treatment like nursing home care. They have to spend down resources to qualify for Medicaid. So here she is with no resources. The nursing homes don't want to give up a rehab bed (more $) for an Alzheimer's Bed (significantly less $ and higher maintenance/staff + high staff injury risk). She will bring their case mix score down (case mix is what medicaid uses to reimburse nursing homes). Plus the state looks for money back after reimbursement-- a "receipts tax".

[REP]

37. My health care provider does have an infusion center

They didn't put my PICC in because they're staffed with techs who can only do PICCs in patients with very easy veins (I had to go to Interventional Radiography, which sounds far more drastic and confrontational than what it is), but the Infusion center is there for just that - after being dx'd with something that needs IV meds, the doc sends patients there. They'll even send ominous boxes of dry ice, heparin, saline and your Rx to your door.

[Lucian]

47. Try telling your first statement to a woman who did find the lump.

I'm willing to bet she'd think differently.

[eilen]

54. ABC's -- airway, breathing, circulation

threats to the three are emergencies. Cancer falls under chronic illness. If the lump has caused shortness of breath or uncontrolled pain, then it is an emergency. When a person finds a lump in their breast, the appropriate response is to call your doctor and set up an appointment. If you do not have a doctor, call a community health center and set up an appointment.

I am not being insensitive to people with breast cancer or any other cancer. My father had lung cancer and it took a month of different appointments-- various tests, a biopsy and consultations with radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists before it was properly diagnosed and for treatment to start. One does not treat a newly discovered lump in the breast emergently (or in the emergency room). Granted, those being treated with chemotherapy and radiation and even post-surgically are at risk for many emergent issues such as dehydration, uncontrolled pain, sudden new pain in back/weakness in legs, mental status changes, infection, dvt, bleeding.

Perhaps your example was not the best one.

[newtothegame]

14. I'm curious as to what people are proposing as alternatives...

When we've created a system where the government is reimbursing hospitals $.52 on the dollar for Medicare/Medicaid patients, and we've got millions of more patients whose care isn't reimbursed at all, something has to happen if you want your local hospital to stay open. It's a systemic problem; blaming the hospitals is fine, if you're also fine with your local hospital closing its doors.

[TBF]

16. Nationalize them. Take away the profit motive.

It's time to kill Capitalism before it kills all of us.

[newtothegame]

18. 30% of hospitals ran at a loss in 2009. 50% in 2008.

That's a failure to even meet current COSTS, let alone gaining any revenue to update equipment, hire more nurses, etc.

Where exactly are all these hospitals with profit motives that you're referring to?

[TBF]

23. Just because those 30% ran at a loss doesn't mean the other

70% weren't profitable. I stand by my opinion that health care should be nationalized.

[newtothegame]

27. I don't disagree with you. Healthcare SHOULD be nationalized.

What scares me is that the government can only afford to pay $.52 on the dollar for Medicare and even less for Medicaid now. What the hell would they be paying if they had to cover EVERYONE?

[CreekDog]

29. Aren't most hospitals set up as non-profits while everything associated is often for profit?

medical groups are profit
insurance companies are for profit


i remember thinking about this when i was working for Kaiser and their hospitals were non profit but the medical group was for profit.

[Dr.Phool]

30. The memory hole at work.

Bush cut Medicare reimbursement rates by 30% over three years.

And they may have run a loss, but did the CEO or the BOD take any cuts in their multi-million dollar salaries?

Nationalize the healthcare system, and get the profit motive out of it. This system is killing people. Part of the class war.

[Blue_Tires]

21. get some price controls on costs, services and equipment...

and break up the profit motive for insurance companies paying their CEOs $100 million annually...

[Gormy Cuss]

31. for one thing, that's reimbursement on charges, not costs.

Charges are based in part on level of reimbursement expected.

For another, if we had national health there wouldn't be any patients whose care isn't reimbursed at all.

[newtothegame]

33. No, it's not. That's my hospital. I work in the Foundation.

$.52 on the dollar Medicare reimbursement for our costs, even less for Medicaid.

[xchrom]

17. Oy - credit checks in ER... Well what can you do? Nt

[TBF]

24. We can fight back is what we can do. nt

[lonestarnot]

55. Yes we can!

[TheKentuckian]

22. A complete debacle and an indicator that even single payer might not unwind our mess

We might have to go straight NHS to have any hope of quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

The insurance cartel is low hanging fruit but the rabbit hole is much deeper.

[TBF]

25. Capitalism is running this country into the ground,

everywhere we turn.

[skoalyman]

26. what next debtors prison in the hospital basement

[PufPuf23]

32. Nationalize Health Care

Tax the wealthy.

Drop military spending.

Stimulate the economy from the grassroots.

Try some true financial and health care reform rather than drawn out corporatist Kabuki.

Get some financial advisors that use science rather than support their cronies.

[donheld]

38. Death Panels

[Daphne08]

42. Yes, well, money is more important than life, isn't it.

:sarcasm:

[Paper Roses]

43. Credit number over 650, you get seen right away.

Below 650, wait in line for hours.

Seriously, this credit thing must be someone's idea of a joke.

[ck4829]

49. "will give the hospital a sense of patients' *financial health*"

After all, that's what's REALLY important for the so-called greatest health care system in the world, right?

[area51]

50. k&r

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, and bankrupts people. Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

[femrap]

51. sickening....

Forget the DNR, just give me the KMN (Kill Me Now).

[earth mom]

53. This should be illegal!!!

:grr: