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 Association, Seema Verma, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, addressed the reports and the impact those lawsuits are having on patients and the healthcare industry.
Hospitals in Virginia, Oklahoma, New York, Tennessee, and Maryland have all been accused of being too aggressive with their collection efforts. Last week, the Washington Post reported that the University of Virginia Health System has filed more than 36,000 lawsuits in the past six years against individuals with unpaid debts.
During her remarks, Varma praised the efforts by the Trump administration to reduce bureaucracy and improve price transparency, to give individuals more information about healthcare procedures. She also took a swing at hospitals for going after individuals who do not pay their bills when they leave the hospital.
Americans are fed up, not only are they paying more, but they aren’t being treated fairly. Like when they go to a hospital they think is in-network, and then receive bills from out-of-network providers. One in six patients have experienced surprise bills after a hospital stay, even when they have insurance. This is simply not fair to patients.
And we are learning the lengths to which certain not for profit hospitals go to collect the full list price from uninsured patients. These hospitals are referring patients to debt collectors, garnishing wages, placing liens on property, and even suing patients into bankruptcy.
This is unacceptable. Hospitals must be paid for their work, but it’s actions like these that have led to calls for a complete Washington takeover of the entire healthcare system.
Acknowledging that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to healthcare “won’t work” Varma also called on healthcare providers to be more aggressive in adopting value-based payment models.
“The data shows that time and again, providers that take on risk deliver better results, so we want every provider in America to participate in value-based payment,” she said.
