KHN: As UVA Scales Back Lawsuits, Pain For Past Patients Persists
Patients were thrilled last month when UVA announced it would scale back lawsuits and provide more financial assistance, but the excitement has waned. By Jay Hancock NOVEMBER 4, 2019 Kitt Klein and Mike Miller lost thousands of dollars in hard-won savings more than a decade ago after UVA Health put a lien on their home for […]
Crain’s Chicago Business: Nonprofit hospitals forced to defend hundreds of millions in property tax breaks
Chicago’s nonprofit hospitals face new pressure to justify property tax exemptions worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Nonprofits in Illinois are exempt from property taxes, in return for providing free or discounted services to poor and underinsured people. But activists are alleging the hospitals don’t provide enough free care to warrant the break. Efforts to […]
Axios: The corporatization of hospital systems
Not-for-profit hospital systems increasingly operate more like corporate titans on the stock exchanges than the charities they promote themselves to be. The big picture: As hospital systems have gotten larger, they have hosted more investor calls, released more financial data and attended more conferences and roadshows to attract banks and municipal debt buyers — all while health care […]
KHN: Patients Eligible For Charity Care Instead Get Big Bills
By Jordan Rau October 14, 2019 When Ashley Pintos went to the emergency room of St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., in 2016, with a sharp pain in her abdomen and no insurance, a representative demanded a $500 deposit before treating her. “She said, ‘Do you have $200?’ I said no,” recalled Pintos, who then […]
NPR: How Non-Profit Hospitals Are Driving Up The Cost of Healthcare
By Greg Rosalsky October 15, 2019 Last year, when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was battling to win the Democratic primary, his campaign solicited a donation from the Greater New York Hospital Association, according to a recent report from The New York Times. The hospital lobbying group gave over $1 million to the New York State […]
Axios: A reality check on hospital mergers
By Bob Herman September 5, 2019 A new report funded by the American Hospital Association claims hospital mergers result in better care and savings for patients. But every other independent study shows the exact opposite — that hospital mergers lead to less competition and higher prices. Why it matters: Hospitals represent the largest chunk of U.S. health care spending. And […]
The New York Times: The Astonishingly High Administrative Costs of U.S. Health Care
By Austin Frakt July 16, 2018 It takes only a glance at a hospital bill or at the myriad choices you may have for health care coverage to get a sense of the bewildering complexity of health care financing in the United States. That complexity doesn’t just exact a cognitive cost. It also comes with administrative costs that are largely hidden […]
The New York Times: The Huge Waste in the U.S. Health System
By Austin Frakt Even a divided America can agree on this goal: a health system that is cheaper but doesn’t sacrifice quality. In other words, just get rid of the waste. A new study, published Monday in JAMA, finds that roughly 20 percent to 25 percent of American health care spending is wasteful. It’s a startling […]
Healthcare Finance: Hospitals keep 91 percent of profit from physician-administered drugs
By Jeff Lagasse Semteber 18, 2019 Hospitals keep 91 percent of profit from physician-administered drugs Not only do commercial payers reimburse clinics at a higher rate than physician offices, but clinics also are eligible for certain discounts. There’s a stark contrast between physician practices and hospital outpatient clinics when it comes to the share of […]
Kaiser Health News: Her Biopsy Report Was Benign. But The Bill Is A Spot Of Contention.
By Cara Anthony Brianna Snitchler was just figuring out the art of adulting when she scheduled a biopsy at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Snitchler was on top of her finances: Her student loan balance was down and her credit score was up. “I had been working for the past three years trying to improve […]