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  • Title: Two years into the storm over pricing to and collecting from the uninsured--a hospital valuation expert examines the risk/return dynamics and asks: would fair pricing and fair medical debt repayment plans increase yields to hospitals and simultaneously mitigate these controversies?
    Author: Unland JJ.
    Journal: J Health Care Finance; 2005; 32(1):54-66. PubMed ID: 18972978.
    Abstract:
    As the controversies over 501(c)(3) "charitable" hospitals' pricing, collections, and charity care practices that emerged in the winter and spring of 2003 continue unabated--now involving government officials from city councils and county boards to state attorneys general and Congress as well as numerous class action lawsuits--a hospital valuation expert and risk analyst looks at the fundamental economic and strategic issues, concluding that the risk/return dynamics are out of whack in that hospitals are facing mushrooming, multifaceted troubles over what has been a very low net yield patient population. After interviewing patient account representatives at hospitals and conducting other research, this analyst asks: Should attention have been focused at the national and state hospital association levels in 2003 to take steps to increase the net yield to hospitals from the uninsured population through more equitable pricing and better medical debt repayment terms, steps that might have mitigated these controversies? Many hospitals and hospital associations have been so intent on proving hospitals' legal right to charge "list price" to and sue the uninsured that they have overlooked a simple yet effective business premise that many hospital patient accounts representatives already fully know: Fair pricing and fair payment terms are actually good business. The author asserts that the controversies that emerged in 2003 actually represented a significant opportunity that, with a different approach, would likely have resulted in hospitals being able to collect significantly more money from the uninsured population while, at the same time, lessening or even avoiding the destructive ramifications that have occurred in the form of investigations, legislation, and lawsuits. To realize higher net yields from the uninsured, highly specific leadership steps need to be taken uniquely at national and state "association" levels in order to avoid the negative financial consequences of fragmented actions that can cause individual hospitals to become "magnets" for the uninsured. Steps at the individual hospital level need to be preceded by coordinated leadership at the "association" level if these difficult controversies are to be transformed into an opportunity for more revenue from the uninsured, an opportunity that existed in 2003 and before.
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