As health care costs explode, hospitals are now trying to force patients to PRE-PAY for treatment
by: Amy Goodrich
NaturalNews.com
Thursday, May 04, 2017
The rise of high-deductible health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), nicknamed Obamacare, has led to a rise in unpaid hospital bills among the insured population. This has prompted more hospitals in America to require patients to pay before they are wheeled into the operating room.
Thanks to Obamacare, millions of Americans now have a health insurance plan. Attracted by the lower monthly cost, many people are choosing for the bronze and silver plans, which can carry deductibles of up to $15,000. According to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half of Americans already have difficulty paying for an unexpected $500 bill. The most widely used Obamacare health plan, however, has a deductible of $6,000 for an individual and double the amount for a family, which is an 18 percent spike compared to 2014, reported Reuters.
Do you know what you’ve signed up for?
Insurance plans can be confusing, leaving many patients puzzled when they find out they must pay thousands of dollars before their insurance kicks in. Often, patients with high-deductible insurance plans do not understand their responsibilities and find themselves unable to pay their share once they leave the hospital.
Jessica Curtis, a senior advisor at Community Catalyst, a consumer advocacy group in Boston, noted that the impact these insurance plans have on patients goes beyond financial issues. Drowning in debt from the deductibles not covered by their plans, some patients skip or delay further care or don’t follow advice on prescription drugs, which usually pushes them further down the lane. Because these people waited to seek medical attention, they often require more expensive procedures after.
More and more hospitals are burdened by bad debt from uncompensated care. Therefore, they are now encouraging individuals with high-deductible plans to pay up front to reduce the growing mountain of unpaid bills. The Henry County Health Center in Iowa is one of the hospitals that recently started to experiment with pre-payment strategies, offering discounts for patients who pay early.
“Most patients are appreciative that we’re telling them up front,” said David Muhs, chief financial officer for the Henry County Hospital. (Related: Read more news coverage of health care plans at HealthCoverage.news.)
The ACA’s plan to shrink debt from uninsured patients has failed dramatically
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