Hospitals Urged to Cut Uninsureds' Costs

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Hospitals Urged to Cut Uninsureds' Costs Thu Feb 19, 6:44 PM ETBy MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The government on Thursday urged hospitals to cut charges for uninsured patients, rejecting hospitals' argument that they are constrained by federal rules.

Uninsured patients often are charged the full retail price for medical procedures, unlike members of private and government health plans that negotiate steep discounts for hospital care. Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson said there are no legal impediments to offering similar relief to the uninsured, regardless of their income. "Nothing in the Medicare program rules or regulations prohibit such discounts," Thompson wrote Richard J. Davidson, president of the American Hospital Association, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals. Hospitals have come under increasing pressure from consumer groups to change pricing for the uninsured. The hospital industry in December acknowledged that hospitals' billing process can be confusing and unfair. In particular, the groups have criticized aggressive collection practices, including suing people for unpaid bills and in some cases, placing liens on their homes. Hospitals provided $22.3 billion in uncompensated care in 2002, according to the hospital association. The organization said it wanted to cut the price of care, but largely blamed inflexible federal rules for the high costs. The group has sought to protect hospitals from federal penalties levied for using financial incentives to bring in patients or for taking unfair advantage of a program in Medicare that reimburses hospitals for bad debts. Association spokesman Rick Wade said that while Thompson answered some questions, other issues remain. "When a hospital sets a policy on the indigent, it will not accommodate every case that comes through a door," Wade said. K.B. Forbes, founder of an advocacy group that has pushed hospital chains to improve their policies for uninsured patients, said the letter was "a major victory for the uninsured. ... Hospitals want to continue to protect outrageously high prices by blaming federal regulations." Forbes' group, Los Angeles-based Consejo de Latinos Unidos (Council of United Latinos) is calling on hospitals to suspend lawsuits against the uninsured for unpaid bills for six months. The group also wants hospitals to adopt a uniform pricing system to reduce confusion. The nation's two largest for-profit hospital chains announced differing plans to offer discounts to the uninsured. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Inc., the largest chain, said it would offer help to low-income patients without insurance. Tenet Healthcare Inc., of Santa Barbara, Calif., said it would offer the uninsured discounts regardless of their income. HCA has put its plan into practice. Tenet is awaiting a ruling from the HHS inspector general. In December, Centura Health, Colorado's largest hospital system, dropped a plan to offer discount services to the uninsured, saying it might violate federal law. Consumer groups said the plan could have helped 700,000 uninsured Coloradans, some of whom make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. The company last spring said it would consider offering uninsured patients the same discounts offered by health plans, which could save individual patients thousands of dollars. ___ On the Net: American Hospital Association: http://www.hospitalconnect.com/ Health and Human Services Department: http://www.hhs.gov http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=544 & ncid=693 & e=10 & u=/ap/20040219/ap_on_go_pr_wh/hospitals_uninsured