Healthcare providers and their member organizations in the last year have taken more steps to reform patient billing than in the previous two decades combined, but that has not stopped the media nor lawmakers from continuing to pile on.
Television is currently in what are called “sweeps,” where local news pulls out all stops to attract viewers. Expect to see plenty of stories about some hapless individual who unexpectedly receives a giant medical bill. For example, KPNX, the NBC affiliate that is co-owned by the Arizona Republic newspaper, completed a seven-part news special report covering the more alarmist aspects of healthcare bills and their impact on consumers.
Even when reporting is relatively balanced, such as this recent article by Kaiser Health News and National Public Radio, the subtext still attacks providers. The headline–”With Medical Debts Rising, Doctors Are More Aggressive About Payments”–does the story as disservice, as there is nothing aggressive about what healthcare providers are doing. A better headline might have been, “Doctors Step Up Efforts to Get Patients to Pay Bills.”
View this content by subscribing
Please register to unlock this content
I already have an account. Log in
