NY Times: Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside. The tactics, like embedding debt collectors as employees in emergency rooms and demanding that patients pay before receiving treatment, were outlined in hundreds of company documents released by the attorney general. And they cast a spotlight on the increasingly desperate strategies among hospitals to recoup payments as their unpaid debts mount.Now here's an interview with the reporter who uncovered this heartwarming alternative to the Affordable Care Act:
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Friday, April 27, 2012
Accretive Health Debt Collectors example of private health care at its sickest.
The worlds best health care system is right here in the U.S., thanks to the help of the best debt collectors money can buy. Here's a short summary from an earlier blog:
I'd been paying every month on a bill from a stroke (no insurance) 5 years ago...all the Drs. paid, but just hospital left. They all of a sudden sent me to collection...."returned mail and phone number disconnected." They'd been sending me bills since 6/07/10 at my new address..I've got copies to prove it. so...they send a couple to an old address, call it "uncollectable", send it to collections, and take it off their books. I wrote letters to everybody!! This is just one of their backhanded tactics!!! I used to do doctor's billing..
ReplyDeleteThat is not new patient really need to pay first before they will be in surgeon stage and for me it is very disgusting but it always happen in any hospital in the world.
ReplyDelete