New health plans worsen hospitals’ bad debt
February 11-17, 2005
By:  Brian Bandell

Consumer-driven health plans, such as HSAs, are being touted as a way to ease rising health care costs by prompting patients to make more cost-conscious decisions.  If they empty their annual spending account, they’re left with a high-deductible plan where they might have to pay thousands of dollars before the insurance provider picks up the majority of the coverage.

Hospitals are struggling to determine whether patients have enough in their health plan accounts to cover a  procedure or must pay a costly deductible – and whether they can afford it, said Stephanie Alexander, a health care attorney with Tripp Scott in Fort Lauderdale.  She’s telling clients such as HCA, the Memorial Healthcare System and the North Broward Hospital District to adjust their billing systems.

“If hospitals get wrong information, they won’t get paid,” Alexander said.  “They need to verity the type of coverage and make sure that if the patient’s responsibility is a large one they track it.”

Hospitals should require up-front payments from patients with high-deductible plans like HSAs, she said.