Posted on 04/01/2006 11:07:54 AM PST by MRMEAN
ALBANY, N.Y., March 31 (UPI) -- New York legislators have imposed limits on how much the states' hospitals can charge low-income, uninsured patients.
According to a report Friday in Long Island Newsday, the new state budget contains provisions whereby patients with annual incomes at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level would be charged "a nominal payment amount."
The new fee limits further stipulate that, for patients with incomes between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level, hospitals would use a sliding fee scale, while for patients at between 250 percent and 300 percent of the federal poverty level, hospitals would not be allowed to charge more than what the largest group insurer -- for example Medicaid -- pays the hospital, the report said.
The rules also prohibit New York hospitals from forcing the sale of a person's home to pay for medical bills and from using a collection agency if the person has filed for financial aid.
Hospitals also would be required to make charity care policies clear to patients and to report the number of patients who have filed for financial aid, as well as the hospitals' costs of providing the care.
"This is a very big breakthrough," New York Assembly Member Pete Grannis said in the report. Grannis noted that, without the fee caps, low-income, uninsured patients "could be charged two, three, five times as much as someone with Medicaid."
The lawmakers predicted that New York Gov. George Pataki would likely go along with the new limits, the report said.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
from each, according to his abilities.
If you are uninsured, you are still well cared for, but you are billed 5x.
How is this just?
I don't know of another system where the poor are billed 5x as much for the same service.
Welcome to NYCS. New York, Communist State.
I shudder to think that not only does Florida have waves of Canadians coming here for treatment, and I understand that very well, but next it will be New Yorkers coming here as more hospitals and clinics close there.
Maybe Pa & NJ will take up the slack.
If you present to the ER and are unable to pay, they cannot refuse you treatment.
Way to shut down more hospitals...
"Legislators" should just pass a law that bans
inequality,poverty,bigotry,bad breath,bad hair,violence,dog turds,zits,PMS,Oprah,Rudeness,Bad Mannners,fast food that doesn't look anything like the picture on the menu,ugly people,hollywood,idiots,death,sickness,islam,global warming,trade deficits,elevator muzak,nagging spouses,faucets that drip drip drip drip,toilets that run,appliances that break,cars that burn gas,flatulence,old women who wear waaaaaaaaay too much perfume,cannibals,those annoying little insects known as gnats,HANGOVERS,any liquor other than Tequila,cottage cheese thighs,fake boobs,telemarketers,stale bread when all you wanted was a damn sandwich,sharpie markers in the hands of 4 year old boys,toilet paper that just either lacks tensile strength or absorbancy,insanity,sharp boogers that refuse to be picked out and cause discomfort for HOURS,overdraft fees,frat boys,"reality" tv,parking meters,kids who refuse to clean their rooms,HUUUUUUUUGE women in denim...
Then everything would be just peachy, courtesy of absolute government encroachment into EVERYTHING.
Evidence?
Where's your evidence?
PA is losing doctors because they can't afford the malpractice insurance they need
That is the key provision right there.
LOL.
Oh boy! Price controls! Don't you just love it when politicians try to regulate supply and demand?
Right now it is the people who are being treated that are going bankrupt. Medical bills are the leading cause in bankruptcies.
The poor are NOT billed 5x as much.....if they cannot pay it, they will pay MUCH less....even my Accountant has only Catastrophic insurance, and negotiates for a lesser cost.
So if the "poor" pay nothing, and the State pays next to nothing, and the Feds pay 20% below cost, where's all the money going to come from?
No, just a fairness.
According to NY law, they cannot refuse treatment.
I just want to make sure that I am on record of WARNING YOU FIRST! BEFORE ANYONE ELSE! BEFORE RUSH, MARK, etc....
actually- this will force hospitals to up there fees for services to compensate for the $$$ lost- so then insurance will go up...
just another form of socialism....those with insurance will be supplementing the cost of those un-insured...
kinda like going out to eat and paying for your dinner and someone else's.... I am waiting for the day when they force restaraunts to feed the poor......then we will pay $50 for a salad, and have to tip 50% to make up for the poor's inability to tip the slave laborers bringing you your food...
lovely, eh?
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
We actually had to have a constitutional referendum here to limit attorney's fees in these cases.
Passed easily.
As I wrote to the local rag here, there are 11 pages of doctors in the yellow pages, but 122 pages of lawyers, and when your wife is pregnant you will have to drive her 45 miles to the nearest OB center.
Along the way, you will pass thousands of lawyers offices.
Which do you want?
Most Americans know that if you get sick enough to go to a hospital, it's going to be expensive. But you may be surprised to learn that hospitals all over the country charge their highest prices, by far, to those who can afford it least — the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance.Hospitals charge uninsured patients two, three, four or more times what an insurance company would pay for the same treatment. And, when the uninsured can’t pay, they often find themselves the target of collection agencies or in bankruptcy court.
don't tell anybody...the Feds have been allowing hospitals to cost shift off of Medicare\Medicaid for years.
The hospitals appear to have taken it further.
I suppose this begs the question of: how poor (or not poor?) do you have to be to not be covered under some sort of fed or state program ?
"FAIRNESS" in a free market economy exists ONLY when a buyer and seller agree on the terms of sale. The only "MORALITY" in the market is what the buyer and seller bring with them.
ALL government interference in a free market economy is WASTEFUL and punishes all for the sake of the few.
Take out your last hospital bill, look for the part that says insurance discount, write off, or whatever.
Just randomly grabbing a bill from the file cabinet, I see "submitted charge...$97.33...negotiated charge...$22.31"
In other words, I (or my insurance) pay $22.31 for a service that costs the uninsured $97.33
This is immoral.
Do you mean if an insurance company or Medicare pays the hospital $150 under their contract with them, the uninsured can't be charged more than $150 for the same service?
Just having any kind of 401K will eliminate you from aid. A $70K retirement fund doesn't go far on a $200K hospital bill.
from each, according to his abilities.
Hillary is that you ?
See my post 24.
.....if
you are uninsured, BUT employed--and present to an emergency room within nyc for treatment you will be billed outrageously.cannot speak for other areas..
some hospitals charge a flat fee of $350 for an exam,treatment and prescriptions.
you can be sure they get their payment.and as you well know,if your insurer does not consider your situation an emergency,you're billed accordingly.....and their sliding scale doesn't slide for anyone with a job.
ON the other hand,if you are illegal,you get a social worker,translator and interpretor and a medicaid card.
been there,SEEN IT and unfortunately paid for it all....and still have a suitcase full of unpaid bills,collections agencies letters etc.(have a handicapped child,DECLARED handicapped by doctors,bd of ed,etc---took years to get a disability and medicaid card---many bills due to authorized hospitalizations,etc.
In NYC it's absolutely critical that folks get medical treatment. It's one of the many odd like quirks that protects the city.
According to Durasell's Rules of the City: No act of charity or public program is performed or instituted within NYC that does not directly or indirectly benefit the city or businesses operating within the city.
>To each, according to his needs,
.from each, according to his abilities
Exactly what I was thinking! The phrase kept running through my head....
This means that the hospital knows the county/state reimburses 20% of what is billed and they raise the charge to get the reimbursement.
Yeah, it's a big breakthrough, all right. It's a breakthrough for the hospital industry in New Jersey.
>No, just a fairness.
pure bullsh*t. These types of actions increase prices and force out doctors.
Next you are going to see rationed care, and that will be the end.
You cannot ignore free market forces and get favorable results, but you aren't looking for that, you are looking for some chimera that you believe is 'fairness.'
Medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcies. It effects the market already in negative ways. You need to start looking at the whole picture.
CBS news as a source? I doubt their reporting is accurate or honest.
C'mon, a quarter million dollar billing written down to just $50,000 for an insured patient? I tell you right now, even it it were true, the cause of the problem would be legislative interference in the free market. Period.
Should it be? I think so.
Negotiated rates assume a free market - this does not exist is US health care.
When you present at ER, does the doctor tell you, up front, the asperin is $10? Nope. Do you care? Probably not. The point is, you are under duress, just by nature of your injury/illness. So the market cannot be free.
"This is a very big breakthrough," New York Assembly Member Pete Grannis said in the report. Grannis noted that, without the fee caps, low-income, uninsured patients "could be charged two, three, five times as much as someone with Medicaid."
BINGO. Medicaid. Medicaid is a prime example of what gubmint price controls do to a free market. Told you.
You assume that there is more than on provider extant. I assert that ER care is a natural monopoly, with the patients under duress.
How is this just?
Seems to me that that would make having insurance an even better deal.
Another strange thing.....I bought a Coke, and I was charged significantly more per ounce than McDonalds was charged for the Coke they bought. How is that fair?????
We're already better than halfway to universal healthcare, it's just that some people don't realize it yet.
Please. If the government wasn't in the health care business then the skewing of rates and charges would not deviate from the national economic norms.
We need LESS involvement, not more.
When the government stops enforcing some notion of 'social justice' then the fees would be in line with free market forces.
The skewing started in 1964, and medical prices have steadily deviated from the norm ever since, as more and more interference is applied to try to correct the results of earlier interferences.
Passing laws regarding the issue will solve nothing at all and is leading us straight to hell.
Can you tell that I used to own a medical facility?
Yes. If you are uninsured, one hospital visit will completely wipe you out. I'm normally very libertarian when it comes to things but the system we have now is not free market to start with. The people who are too poor to have insurance but not poor enough to get aid end up paying for everyone and are left in poverty.
A monopoly???
Then start your own franchise of kinder, gentler ERs.
Charge whatever the patient thinks is fair. Pay your vendors whatever you think is fair. Go broke.
Stop calling for all the rest of us to subsidize the folks who won't take care of their own matters.
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