NBC News: Cancer patients often charged exorbitant fees for parking
By Rebecca Ritzel May 15, 2021 For cancer patients, the road from diagnosis to survivorship feels like a never-ending parade of medical appointments: surgeries, blood work, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, scans. The routine is time-consuming and costly. So, when hospitals charge patients double-digit parking fees, patients often leave the garage demoralized. Iram Leon vividly remembers the […]
New York Times: Buoyed by Federal Covid Aid, Big Hospital Chains Buy Up Competitors
By Reed Abelson May 21, 2021 Billions of dollars in Covid aid cushioned financial losses caused by the pandemic at some of the nation’s largest hospital chains. But those bailouts also helped sustain the big chains’ spending sprees as they expanded even more by scooping up weakened competitors and doctors’ practices. More consolidation by several […]
CNN: ‘There’s no way I can pay for this:’ One of America’s largest hospital chains has been suing thousands of patients during the pandemic
By Casey Tolan May 18, 2021 As the coronavirus spiked in Missouri last fall, a wave of cases hit a nursing home in the state’s rural heartland. Robin Bull, a part-time nurse, remembered an ambulance “coming and going constantly” on one especially scary morning, rushing residents to Moberly Regional Medical Center, the local hospital. But […]
KHN: Covid Testing Has Turned Into a Financial Windfall for Hospitals and Other Providers
By Jay Hancock and Hannah Norman May 7, 2021 Pamela Valfer needed multiple covid tests after repeatedly visiting the hospital last fall to see her mother, who was being treated for cancer. Beds there were filling with covid patients. Valfer heard the tests would be free.So, she was surprised when the testing company billed her […]
AXIOS Vitals: Cost of care creeps with consolidation
By Caitlin Owens May 4, 2021 Two studies released yesterday in Health Affairs add to the growing body of evidence that when hospitals acquire physician practices, the cost of care goes up. The big picture: Providers are increasingly practicing as part of hospital systems rather than independently, a trend that will likely continue to drive […]
CBS: Battling COVID is just the start for many patients: Their hospital bills can be staggering
February 25, 2021 Jeff Sherman spent 11 days in the hospital fighting COVID-19.”I was on oxygen the entire time, they of course charged for that,” the Huntington Beach, California resident told CBS Los Angeles. “I was on high flow oxygen two-thirds of that time, and they charge an extra rate for that, so the […]
WZTV: Sumner County man’s summer fishing trip & snake bite leads to $42,800 medical chopper bill
By Erika Glover April 8, 2021 SUMNER COUNTY, Tenn. (WZTV) — A summer fishing trip is costing one Sumner county man thousands of dollars in medical bills, but it’s not from his hospital visit. John Brown says his ordeal started when a Copperhead snake, hiding under a boat cover, bit his ankle on Dale Hollow lake. […]
WSJ: A City’s Only Hospital Cut Services. How Locals Fought Back.
By Brian Spegele April 11, 2021 When the only hospital in a small central Wyoming city stopped delivering babies and cut back on surgeries, local residents sought to start their own. The fight that ensued now stretches to Washington, and is shining an uncomfortable light on one of the country’s biggest hospital chains and its […]
WAPO: Some of America’s wealthiest hospital systems ended up even richer, thanks to federal bailouts
By Jordan Rau and Christine Spolar April 1, 2021 Last May, Baylor Scott & White Health, the largest nonprofit hospital system in Texas, laid off 1,200 employees and furloughed others as it braced for the then-novel coronavirus to spread. The cancellation of lucrative elective procedures as the hospital pivoted to treat a new and less profitable […]
Modern Healthcare: High prices fuel Massachusetts healthcare spending growth
By Alex Kacik March 25, 2021 While more care is shifting from inpatient to outpatient facilities across Massachusetts, that transition isn’t yielding the expected cost savings, new data show. Massachusetts hospital outpatient spending grew by 7.3% per Medicare beneficiary from 2018 to 2019, which was twice the rate of the national average, according to data from the […]