Non-profit Healthcare Providers Under Scrutiny for Billing and Collection Practices

For some time now, healthcare providers have been dealing with declining reimbursements from third-party payers and a higher portion of patient responsibility as a part of their total accounts receivable. As the reimbursement challenges grow and operating margins shrink, healthcare’s bottom lines have felt the squeeze. Though this alone is enough to cause sleepless nights for revenue cycle professionals, there is now a new front that those in the non-profit healthcare world are having to face. Lately, non-profit healthcare providers have come under increased scrutiny by public media and consumer advocates for their billing and collection practices.

The beginnings of this movement trace back to a series of ProPublica articles titled “Unforgiven: The Transformation of Consumer Debt.” In their series, ProPublica reported on several non-profit and public healthcare providers across the country, citing their treatment of lower-income patients and their reliance on lawsuits to compel the payment of medical debt. It was enough, at the time, that the investigation prompted further scrutiny by Senator Charles Grassley, causing one hospital system in Missouri to overhaul its financial assistance policy and forgive the debts of thousands of former patients.

More recently, ProPublica and other consumer advocacy outlets have cited the following hospitals for their billing and collection practices: Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tennessee; St. Francis Health System in Oklahoma; Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico and; Virginia’s non-profit Mary Washington Hospital.

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