Providence erases or refunds $158M in medical bills
Healthcare Dive
FEBRUARY 2, 2024
The Renton, Washington-based nonprofit health system will refund millions to settle allegations it skirted charity care obligations between 2018 and 2023.
Tools for Paying Medical Bills Don’t Help Health Consumers Manage Their Financial Health
Health Populi
FEBRUARY 24, 2020
And note how Americans’ trust in hospitals — historically the top-trusted health care segment in the nation — eroded from 2018, tying with consumer health companies, and just north of biotech and life science organizations. .” Yet it’s health care costs that rank top in U.S.
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Trending Sources
Surprise, Surprise: Most Americans Have Faced a “Surprise” Medical Bill
Health Populi
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
Most Americans have been surprised by a medical bill, a NORC AmeriSpeak survey found. patients blamed doctors and pharmacies, although a majority of consumers still put responsibility for surprise healthcare bills on them (71% and 64% net). adults 18 and over in August 2018. Who’s responsible? Plus ça change.
Many Hospitals Receiving Discounted Drugs May Not Offer Patients Pharmaceutical Assistance
Bill of Health
JULY 20, 2022
This steady increase in prices can leave patients unable to pay their medical bills or access necessary medical care. One-fourth of US adults say they or a household member have had problems paying medical bills, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. increase in hospital prices and offset by a 15.4%
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Rivia Health Secures $3.25M to Streamline Patient Payments
HIT Consultant
FEBRUARY 4, 2024
Founded in 2018, Riva Health addresses a critical pain point in the healthcare industry: complex and often frustrating patient payment experiences. Their intelligent platform leverages digital communication, smart messaging, and convenient payment tools to remove common barriers to collections, allowing patients to easily settle their bills.
Doing Less Can Be Doing More for Healthcare – the Biggest Takeaway From ASCO 2018
Health Populi
JUNE 5, 2018
The study, Adjuvant Chemotherapy Guided by a 21-Gene Expression Assay in Breast Cancer, was published in The New England Journal of Medicine on June 3, 2018, coinciding with the researchers’ ASCO presentation of the results. ” A genetic test that costs $3,000 helps to identify women who could benefit from avoiding chemo.
Doctors 87
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VUMC Faces Lawsuit Over Disclosure of Medical Records of Transgender Patients to State AG
HIPAA Journal
JULY 25, 2023
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville, TN, has confirmed that the medical records of transgender patients have been provided to Tennessee Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti, in connection with an investigation of medical billing fraud.
Fraud 70
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Will Trade Data for (Cheaper) Health Care – USC’s View of the Future
Health Populi
FEBRUARY 20, 2020
As such, American health consumers are wrestling with sticker shock from surgical procedures, surprise medical bills weeks after leaving the hospital, and the cost of prescription drugs — whether six-figure oncology therapies or essential medicines like insulin and EpiPens. Patients are now front-line payors in the U.S.
Telemedicine 172
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Healthcare Financial Assistance Transactions Increases by 55%, TransUnion Healthcare Survey Reveals
HIT Consultant
NOVEMBER 8, 2021
TransUnion Healthcare began collecting this data in September 2018 and has tracked an upward year-over-year trend, amounting to a 270% increase since that time. Along with its most recent data analysis, TransUnion Healthcare also conducted a consumer survey of patients’ healthcare billing experiences.
As Workers’ Healthcare Costs Increase, Employers Look to Telehealth and Wearable Tech to Manage Cost & Health Risks
Health Populi
OCTOBER 3, 2018
Family premiums for health insurance received at the workplace grew 5% in 2018: to $19,616, according to the 2018 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). Over the past decade the share of workers in plans with annual deductibles has grown from 59% in 2008 to 85% in 2018.
Telemedicine 62
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Outpatient is the New Inpatient – The Future of Hospitals in America
Health Populi
FEBRUARY 26, 2020
There’s no mistaking that more Supercenters are located in areas with greater levels of people without insurance based on data from 2019 (Walmart store location count) and 2018 (uninsured rates).
Hospitals 127
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Sicker Consumers Are More Willing to Share Health Data
Health Populi
SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
People dealing with chronic conditions are keener to share personally-generated data than people that don’t have a chronic disease, Deloitte’s 2018 Survey of U.S> Specifically, 50% of health consumers search to see their providers are in-network, to avoid surprise medical bills. 39% check reputations.
Doctors 84
84 
Will Consumers Cross the Cost-and-Trust Chasm Between Prescription Drugs and Hospitals?
Health Populi
OCTOBER 28, 2019
84% of Americans told the Foundation that they were concerned about how much health care costs will affect them in the future, with 42% of patients saying they couldn’t afford to pay over $500 for an unexpected medical bill. Hospital costs contribute to rising medical costs to 49% of health consumers.
Hospitals 54
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The Top Pain Point in the Healthcare Consumer Experience is Money
Health Populi
SEPTEMBER 5, 2018
98% of Americans rank paying their medical bills is an important pain point in their patient journey, according to Embracing consumerism: Driving customer engagement in the healthcare financial journey , from Experian Health. Healthcare is a Come Together moment and opportunity in America for the 2018 mid-term elections.
“It’s the Deductible, Stupid” – Health Premiums Reach $20,576 in 2019 for a Family
Health Populi
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019
In 2019, ”cost” for health consumers translates into the premium, deductible, out-of-pocket spending, and surprise medical bills — an issue that’s getting a lot of attention in U.S. Overall, 57% of employers offer health benefits — equal to offer levels in 2018 and similar to the 2009 level of 59%.
Health Care Costs Still Americans’ Top Financial Worry Among All Money Concerns
Health Populi
MAY 30, 2019
Medical costs have, in fact, ranked at the top of this list for three years in a row, with a five percentage point rise between 2018 and 2019. This is worrisome because Fidelity Investments’ latest calculations in April 2019 gauged that people retiring in 2018 at 65 will need $285,000 to cover medical costs in retirement.
The Federal Reserve Chairman Speaks Out on Health Care Costs: “Spending But Getting Nothing”
Health Populi
FEBRUARY 17, 2020
Chairman Powell spoke about health care costs with Yahoo Finance in 2018: “It’s no secret: It’s been true for a long time that with our uniquely expensive healthcare delivery system and the aging of our population, we’ve been on an unsustainable fiscal path for a long time.” ” (H/T Business Insider ).
No Surprise Billing Requirements to be Implemented Jan 1, 2022
Florida Health Care Law Firm
DECEMBER 9, 2021
The Rule does not apply to people with coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, Indian Health Services, Veteran Affairs Health Care or TRICARE as these programs already contain protections against high medical bills. Bans balance billing for emergency services.
From Evolution to Innovation, from Health Care to Health: How Health Plans With Collaborators Are Re-Defining the Industry
Jane Sarashon
FEBRUARY 4, 2024
Furthermore, health plan members now see themselves as medical bill payers, seeking value and consumer-level services for their health insurance premium investment. Patients and health plan members continue evolving into medical bill payers, with their homes and budgets baked into the concept.
Insured, Sick and Broke – The Latest on the State of U.S. Health-Insured Consumers’ Financial Health
Health Populi
MAY 5, 2019
This is what rationing health care looks like in America: one in two people in families dealing with a chronic health condition have difficulty affording paying medial bills before meeting a deductible, unexpected medical bills, co-payments for prescription drugs, co-payments for physician visits, and/or their monthly health insurance premium.
Private Equity: Investigation and Enforcement
Med Law Blog
MAY 1, 2023
We saw that issue up close last year as the committee considered the role of PE firms in the increase of patients receiving surprise medical bills.” Tenet went through its own bankruptcy difficulties and, in 2018, sold its remaining Philadelphia assets, i.e. Hahnemann Hospital and St.
OCR Will Focus on You if You Don’t Focus on Cybersecurity
Health Law RX
DECEMBER 21, 2023
The Ransomware Settlement In October 2023 (also Cybersecurity Awareness Month), OCR entered into the Ransomware Settlement with Doctors’ Management Services (DMS), a medical management company that provides a variety of administrative services, such as medical billing and payor credentialing.
HIPAA 52
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The Patient As the Payer: Self-Pay, Bad Debt, and the Erosion of Hospital Finances
Jane Sarashon
SEPTEMBER 13, 2022
And bad debt — write-offs that come out of uncollected patient bill balances after “significant collection efforts” by hospitals and doctors — is challenging their already-thin or negative financial margins.
Hospitals 56
56 A Dose of Optimism Is a Prescription for Financial Health, Says Frost Bank
Health Populi
APRIL 24, 2019
adults 18 and over in September 2018 in English and Spanish. As the National Center for Health Statistics has reported , people with HDHPs are far more likely than those with traditional health plans to forgo or delay medical care or to be in a household that is having difficulty paying medical bills.”
Design, Empathy and Ethics Come to Healthcare: HXD
Health Populi
JUNE 26, 2018
I’m blogging live while attending HXD 2018 in Cambridge, MA, the health/care design conference convened by Mad*Pow, 26th and 27th June 2018. Julie discussed the Cleveland Clinic’s project on designing a better medical bill, detailing the organization’s design thinking on the inpatient journey and commitment to patient-centered care.
Will Technology Cure Americans’ Health Care System Ills? Considering Google and Ascension Health’s Data Deal
Health Populi
NOVEMBER 12, 2019
What’s underneath that macro “healthcare” index number of 67 is a precipitous decline in the past year for Americans’ trust in hospitals, compared with biotech, pharma, consumer healthcare, and even health insurance — all of which grew in trust between 2018 and 2019, but not so with the hospital segment of U.S.
Hospitals 64
64 
Jasper, Scaling a Human Touch for People Dealing with Cancer, Now With Walgreens
Health Populi
JUNE 6, 2022
Walgreens launched Find Care Now in 2018. Individuals and their families are overwhelmed with the information, tasks, steep medical bills and the ‘unknown’ that cancer brings and are trying to manage everything with limited to no support.
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Isn’t It Eyeconic? Vision Care in the Evolving Health Care Ecosystem
Health Populi
MARCH 21, 2019
Over one-half of 213 retail chains listed in Internet Retailers top 1000 offered “buy online, pick up in store” fulfillment in 2018. Walmart, in particular, had a huge uptick in this during the 2018 holiday shopping season. Frictionless retail is also an important paradigm for health care, an industry rife with friction.
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98 Consumers Expand Their Definition of Well-Being to Include Food-As-Medicine
Health Populi
FEBRUARY 4, 2019
The consumer-as-medical-bill-payor is now looking at foods with health benefits, first and foremost for heart health. Food stores gained in trust between 2017 and 2018, illustrating the opportunity that a consumer’s favorite grocery store can leverage in a trusted relationship with a person keen on health.
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Great Expectations for Health Care: Patients Look for Consumer Experience and Trust in Salesforce’s Latest Research
Health Populi
NOVEMBER 5, 2019
health care economics, patients are now payors as health consumers with more financial skin in paying medical bills. As consumers, people have great expectations from the organizations on the supply side of health care — providers (hospitals and doctors), health insurance plans, pharma and medical device companies.
In U.S. Health Care, It’s Still the Prices, Stupid – But Transparency and Consumer Behavior Aren’t Working As Planned
Health Populi
JANUARY 18, 2019
Research published in JAMA Internal Medicine in December 2018 found that as out-of-pocket costs for insulin have increased over the past few years, many patients use less insulin than needed. The therapy treats thalassemia, a genetic disease that affects 1,000 people in the U.S. and 300,000 people worldwide.
Money First, Then Kids: The State of the American Family in 2018
Health Populi
DECEMBER 3, 2018
Most American families with children at home are concerned about paying bills on a monthly basis. One in two people have had at least one personal “economic crisis” in the past year, we learn in the American Family Survey 2018 , released last week from Deseret News and The Brookings Institution. The fact that half of U.S.
The Patient As Payor: Workers Covered by Employer Health Insurance Spend 11.5% of Household Incomes on Premiums and Deductibles
Health Populi
DECEMBER 5, 2019
of their household income on health insurance premiums and deductibles based on The Commonwealth Fund’s latest report on employee health care costs, Trends in Employer Health Coverage, 2008-2018: Higher Costs for Workers and Their Families. Workers covered by health insurance through their companies spend 11.5% of household income.
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Health Data Breaches Have Risen Dramatically According to HHS
MedTrainer
JULY 21, 2022
In January of 2018, Hancock Health of Indiana experienced a serious ransomware attack that forced their entire network to shut down. Hackers stole medical billing records from a whopping one million New York patients—that’s about an eighth of the city’s total population. An Overview of Data Breaches in the Healthcare Industry.
Health Care for a Typical Working Family of Four in America Will Cost $28,166 in 2018
Health Populi
MAY 22, 2018
What could $28,166 buy you in 2018? Welcome to this year’s edition of the Milliman Medical Index (MMI), one of the most important forecasts of the year in the world of the Health Populi blog and THINK-Health universe. home healthcare, ambulance services, durable medical equipment). was $59,214 in February 2018.
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Hospitals Suffer Decline in Consumer Satisfaction
Health Populi
NOVEMBER 27, 2019
While customer satisfaction with health insurance plans slightly increased between 2018 and 2019, patient satisfaction with hospitals fell in all three settings where care is delivered — inpatient, outpatient, and the emergency room, according to the 2018-2019 ACSI Finance, Insurance and Health Care Report.
Hospitals 68
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How Hospitals Can Help Patients Meet Financial Obligation While Driving Revenue Excellence
HIT Consultant
NOVEMBER 2, 2021
The inability to pay medical bills is strongly correlated with a lack of insurance. In 2018, 14.2% The impact is not limited to patients. Healthcare providers are feeling the pinch as well. On average, uncompensated care accounts for approximately 8% of a hospital’s expenses. Covid has pushed this number up significantly.
Hospitals 52
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Benefit Cost Increases Overwhelm Flat Wages for Most in US: Pew
Health Populi
AUGUST 9, 2018
Pew also calculated that median weekly earnings increased from $232 in the beginning of 1979 to $879 in 2018. More women know a family member who has avoided care due to cost, and more faced paying a medical bill that was higher than expected. Purchasing power over time is shown in the second chart.
Health Provider News
Hall Render
APRIL 28, 2023
merger International audience hails UPMC’s new vision and rehab complex Kaiser, Geisinger launch nonprofit to buy hospitals Kaiser Permanente to acquire Geisinger, form company to operate other nonprofit systems Lannett delisted from New York Stock Exchange PA-based medical equipment company to pay $5.3M
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Healthcare Costs Stress Out U.S. Voters One Week Ahead of 2018 Mid-Term Elections
Health Populi
OCTOBER 30, 2018
.” Perhaps this is why healthcare has become a top voting issue for the 2018 mid-term elections that will be held on November 6 one week from today. adults in August 2018. As we approach November 6, American voters in 2018 appear to be very health-cost-pragmatic. The post Healthcare Costs Stress Out U.S.
Guns, Jobs, or Health Care? In 2018, Voters Split as to Top Issue
Health Populi
MAY 10, 2018
It’s a fairly even split between voting first on gun policy, jobs, or healthcare for the 2018 mid-term elections, ac. cording to the May 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll. ” Health Populi’s Hot Points: The 2018 mid-term elections in America will be strongly focused on healthcare and health costs.
The Hospital CFO in the Anxiety Economy – My Talk at Cerner’s Now/Next Conference
Health Populi
OCTOBER 6, 2019
As patients have taken on more financial responsibility for first-dollar costs in high-deductible health plans and medical bills, hospitals and health care providers face growing fiscal pressures for late payments and bad debt. Over one-half of people told APA that medical bills and the cost of medications were sources of stress.
Hospitals 71
71 Most Americans Want the Federal Government to Ensure Healthcare for All
Health Populi
DECEMBER 6, 2018
Now, in late 2018, we look toward 2019 and the 2020 Presidential elections and must also contemplate the lower darker green line. Healthcare costs are part of a family’s budget in 2018, and that is a sure thing for 2019 as well. That’s the top lighter green line in the first chart. That’s answered in the third chart.
Governance 71
71 
Pre-Existing Conditions: A Bipartisan, National Health Priority
Health Populi
AUGUST 29, 2018
Health Populi’s Hot Points: Pre-existing conditions are a big deal to Americans these days: among registered voters, ensuring that health plans cover pre-existing conditions is the most important health care issue on Americans’ minds, the June 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll found.
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