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Fresh pain for healthcare providers, too

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, December 21, 2007

Depending on whether you believe the hype or not, there are up to 47 million uninsured in this country. When they get sick, they go to your emergency room.

For years, you have taken care of them and written off their debts. So you've been training people not to pay for years, and now it's coming back to bite you with a vengeance. You can't afford to do that anymore. Nonprofit hospitals today face a world of financial pressures their forefathers and foremothers never did.

With Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurers cutting payments and loads of people choosing to go without health insurance, healthcare cost increases are unsustainable, and the government is pushing back with payment cuts while commercial insurers are negotiating contracts with tougher tactics.

Employers are forcing their employees to pay more of the cost of their care, too, putting heretofore never-seen burdens on hospitals to collect that money. None of this is new to readers of this newsletter, I'm sure.

To read the full story in HealthLeaders Media, click here.

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