Health Reform Job One: Stop the Gouging! | Part 1

We Need Legal Assaults On The Greediest Providers! By BOB HERTZ When a patient is hospitalized, or diagnosed with a deadly disease, they often have no choice about the cost of their treatment. They are legally helpless, and vulnerable to price gouging. Medicare offers decent protection — i.e. limits on balance billing, and no patient liability if a claim is denied. But under age 65, it is a Wild West — especially for emergency care, and drugs and devices. The more they charge, the more they make. Even good health insurance does not offer complete financial insulation. We need more legal protection of patients. In some cases we need price controls. ‘Charging what the market will bear’ is inadequate, even childish, when ‘the market’ consists of desperate patients. Where contracts are impossible and there is no chance for informed financial consent, government can and should step in. This series describes the new laws that we need. Very little is required in tax dollars….but we do require a strong will to protect. Assault Phase One: Outlaw surprise billing This rule must become universal: If a hospital is ‘in-network’, then any doctor who practices in that hospital is ‘in-network.’ To enforce this, we should adopt Connecticut’s law on surprise billing and balance billing for the entire nation. Connecticut’s law No.15-146, which took effect July 1, 2016. states the following: â€...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Economics Health Policy Patients Bob Hertz health reform Price controls price gouging Source Type: blogs