Could Good Credit Save Your Life in the E.R.?
In a move the company says is designed to "enhance" its delinquent patient account collections, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, a $9 billion operator of hospitals and outpatient clinics, recently announced it has begun pulling patient credit reports as standard operating procedure.
The move comes amid prolonged and increased scrutiny from the U.S. regulators who are widely expected to enact a number of industry bruising reforms designed to lower the cost of medical care while providing affordable health insurance plans to all Americans.
Along with Fair Isaac (the flagship credit information company behind the consumer credit FICO score), Tenet and several other payment analytics firms have partnered to create a proprietary software program that Fair Isaac claims accurately predicts the liklihood that a patient will pay its medical bills. Although current healthcare regulations prohibit any licensed medical provider from witholding medical care from anyone, regardless of their ability to pay, privacy advocates and other consumer organizations are concerned about the implications that credit scoring creates in an industry widely criticized by the Obama administration for not doing enough to contain costs.
Hypothetically, say industry analysts, a hospital company could pull a credit score and use the information in advance to determine what level of care they might provide or deny the in a potentially critical or fatal patient situation. Further, since the hospital has access to patients' entire financial history, collectors might elect to sue patients with liquid assets or other equity as a way to recover their losses.
Baptist Health South, an operator of hospitals and acute care facilities in Florida, contents that health credit scores aren't used to determine who will be treated at their facilities. Instead, the scores are used as a strategic guide when assigning collectors to chase down patients when their bills are past due. Patients with "high scores" are most likely to pay their bills without delay. On the flip side, patients with the lowest scores are considered lost causes to the hospital since they likely can't afford to pay anyway or don't have health insurance. Those with mid-range scores are considered worthy of considerable collections efforts.
Industry proponents say hospitals are not unlike any for-profit venture that has been badly injured in an unprescedented economic downturn. According to the American Hospital Association, some $31 billion in healthcare services are provided by its 5,000 member facilities annually that isn't paid for.
In the case of Tenet, the company started overhauling its collections procedures after back to back annual declines in revenues. According to its latest earninge release, Tenet claims that its paying patient growth at its outpatient clinics couldn't make up for a 36 percent shortfall in revenues from inpatient stays during the third quarter of 2009.
Tenet officials did not return messages requesting comment at article posting time.
The move comes amid prolonged and increased scrutiny from the U.S. regulators who are widely expected to enact a number of industry bruising reforms designed to lower the cost of medical care while providing affordable health insurance plans to all Americans.
Along with Fair Isaac (the flagship credit information company behind the consumer credit FICO score), Tenet and several other payment analytics firms have partnered to create a proprietary software program that Fair Isaac claims accurately predicts the liklihood that a patient will pay its medical bills. Although current healthcare regulations prohibit any licensed medical provider from witholding medical care from anyone, regardless of their ability to pay, privacy advocates and other consumer organizations are concerned about the implications that credit scoring creates in an industry widely criticized by the Obama administration for not doing enough to contain costs.
Hypothetically, say industry analysts, a hospital company could pull a credit score and use the information in advance to determine what level of care they might provide or deny the in a potentially critical or fatal patient situation. Further, since the hospital has access to patients' entire financial history, collectors might elect to sue patients with liquid assets or other equity as a way to recover their losses.
Baptist Health South, an operator of hospitals and acute care facilities in Florida, contents that health credit scores aren't used to determine who will be treated at their facilities. Instead, the scores are used as a strategic guide when assigning collectors to chase down patients when their bills are past due. Patients with "high scores" are most likely to pay their bills without delay. On the flip side, patients with the lowest scores are considered lost causes to the hospital since they likely can't afford to pay anyway or don't have health insurance. Those with mid-range scores are considered worthy of considerable collections efforts.
Industry proponents say hospitals are not unlike any for-profit venture that has been badly injured in an unprescedented economic downturn. According to the American Hospital Association, some $31 billion in healthcare services are provided by its 5,000 member facilities annually that isn't paid for.
In the case of Tenet, the company started overhauling its collections procedures after back to back annual declines in revenues. According to its latest earninge release, Tenet claims that its paying patient growth at its outpatient clinics couldn't make up for a 36 percent shortfall in revenues from inpatient stays during the third quarter of 2009.
Tenet officials did not return messages requesting comment at article posting time.
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