Even Republicans Want to Outlaw Surprise Medical Billing
Conclusion
Surprise billing is generally not a problem with Medicare or Medicaid.
But for others under age 65, we need new regulations which must be non-negotiable. State health departments must be empowered to cancel overcharges, which will still occur despite regulations.
If we can establish reforms now, in a time of crisis, the new laws have a chance to be permanent when the crisis is over. For now, we must:
Immediately ban providers from sending balance bills for out-of-network health care services related to the coronavirus. Require insurers to make a payment for these services on a timely basis and limit...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Bob Hertz Cost Sharing economic reform health economics surprise billing Source Type: blogs
There Will Be Consequences
By KIM BELLARD
Crises — like our
current COVID-19 pandemic — force people to come up with new solutions.
They slash red tape, they improvise, they innovate, they collaborate, they cut
corners. Some of these will prove inspired, others will only be temporary,
and a few will turn out to be misguided. We may not know which is which
except in hindsight.
I covered some of these
in a previous article, but let me highlight a few:
Hospitals: We’re building new hospitals, such as in convention centers, to address the expected shortage of beds. Hospitals are also coor...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 14, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Tech health innovation Kim Bellard Pandemic Source Type: blogs
Confronting Disability Discrimination During the Pandemic
As hospitals and public health authorities devise triage protocols to allocate scarce critical-care resources during the Covid-19 pandemic, people with disabilities are expressing alarm that these protocols devalue them and exacerbate long-entrenched ableism in health care. Lawsuits alleging disability discrimination in have been filed in Washington and Alabama. The U.S. Office for Civil Rights is investigating disability discrimination complaints in triage protocols. The challenge is to develop protocols that will minimize discrimination in the health care system.
The post Confronting Disability Discrimination During the...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - April 2, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Susan Gilbert Tags: Health Care ableism Chronic Conditions and End of Life Care COVID-19 crisis planning disability lawsuits syndicated Source Type: blogs
Finding Comfort in Predictions
On March 11 I wrote the following notes in my personal journal:
The coronavirus is currently in outbreak mode around the world. There are 125,865 known infections worldwide, with almost 81K in China. In the USA there are already 1281 infections, 7 of them in Nevada. But that’s largely due to severe under-testing.I think the USA is in for a big reckoning, especially with Donald Trump being a complete idiot in his response to this, clearly caring more about the economy and his own self-interests than about people’s lives.The death rate of this virus seems to be about 3-4%, a lot deadlier than the flu. There’s a good...
Source: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog - March 24, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steve Pavlina Tags: Emotions Health Source Type: blogs
A Full-Scale Assault on Medical Debt, Part 2
By BOB HERTZ
The first section of this article stated that many forms of medical debt can be reduced or cancelled by stronger enforcement of consumer protection laws. These debts are not inevitable and are not due to poverty. It would not require trillions of federal dollars to cancel them, either – just the willingness to go against lobbyists.
Therefore
I advocate the following attacks on medical debt:
Phase One
We must
cancel balance bills and surprise bills if there was no prior disclosure.
In most cases,
providers will not have the right to collect anything more than what the insurers pay them.
...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 9, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Economics The Business of Health Care balance bills Bob Hertz health economics medical debt surprise billing Source Type: blogs
