Most of us know that it could cost us everything we own if we go to a hospital that isn’t covered by our insurance plan. But what if you’re unconscious and have no say in the matter? That’s the case for a Wisconsin woman who owes $50,000 to a hospital that claims she should just pay up and be happy she’s still alive. [More]
hospitals
Hospital Teams With Bank To Offer Interest-Free Loans So Patients Can Pay Their Bills
By 9.2.14
Health care, especially of the emergency kind, has been known to leave consumers with hefty bills and few options expect to go into debt. But now some health systems are finding ways to give their patients relief when it comes to credit-destroying medical bills. [More]
Hackers Steal Info For 4.5 Million Hospital Patients
By 8.18.14
The new week begins much like the previous week ended — with news of another massive data breach. The latest hack victims are the millions of patients of Community Health Systems, which operates more than 200 hospitals in 29 states. [More]
Police Arrest Man Who Left Hospital Untreated Because You Can’t Wander Around With Tuberculosis
By 7.30.14
While you might think that your health is your own gosh darn business — and it is, to some extent — when you’re wandering out there in the world with an infectious and potentially fatal disease, your health is everyone’s business. So when one man refused treatment and left the hospital, he ended up with police on his trail. [More]
Hospitals Now Use Consumers’ Personal Habits To Predict Health Issues
By 6.26.14
By now we know that every purchase a consumer makes is added to a list detailing one’s spending and life-style habit, which is used to target people for marketing campaigns and other services. But how would you feel if that information was used by your doctors to keep tabs on your health? [More]
Hospital Chain Inflated Bills, Pressured Doctors Into Generating Admissions, Lawsuits Claim
By 1.24.14
There are many accusations of money-grubbing in the health care industry. Most of them are subtle: a preferred medication here, a handshake behind closed doors there. But actually hanging a chart on the wall and proudly color-coding your ER doctors like car salesmen based on how high their admission rates are? That’s about as in-your-face as the pursuit of profit gets. [More]
Report: Nation’s Top Hospitals Not Pushing Baby Formula On New Moms
By 10.29.13
From diapers to formula to clothing and other infant-care items, newborns are a huge source of revenue to numerous industries. That’s why some of these businesses put together new-mom goodie bags to be handed out at maternity wards, hoping to create loyal customers from the start. Some people are concerned that the practice of including free formula in these bags makes it too easy for a new mom to avoid nursing her child. And according to a new survey, many of the nation’s best hospitals are saying no to the goodie bags. [More]
If Hospital Names Its ER After Abercrombie & Fitch, Will Patient Gowns Come In XL Sizes?
By 8.27.13
Ohio State University is reportedly gearing up to name its new emergency department after Abercrombie & Fitch, as a nod to the $10 million the Ohio-based company donated to the medical center in recent years. We can’t help but imagine half-clothed doctors with rippling muscles, and artfully ripped denim hospital gowns with a surfeit of cargo pockets (the better to carry your IV bag in?) — but not in XL or XXL sizes for women, natch. [More]
Bad News: Your Medical Records Are Probably For Sale
By 8.12.13
Electronic medical records are kind of cool: they help your doctors beam your prescription records back and forth from pharmacies and are supposed to save everyone money and time. What you may not realize, though, is that digital records are easy to share, and what’s easy to share is easy to sell. Somewhere, your most private medical data is probably for sale. [More]
Hospital Bills Patient 21 Months After Treatment, And Long After Original Bill Was Paid
By 6.25.13
When you pay off your portion of a hospital bill, you might assume that you’ve fulfilled your financial obligation to the healthcare provider. That is, until nearly two years later when the hospital sends you a new invoice without any further explanation. [More]
Paging 1994: Report Says Hospitals Are Leaking Billions Of Dollars By Still Using Beepers
By 5.7.13
There are no doubt millions of children in the United States right now who would greet a pager with a blank stare, having never witnessed one in action. And yet the country’s hospitals still rely on beepers and other outdated technology for communication between staff members. But being stuck in 1994 isn’t a cheap endeavor, according to a new report — it’s actually costing hospitals billions of dollars a year. So why do they still use them? [More]
Posing As Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour To Scam Hospital For $100K In Treatment Is Not A Good Idea
By 5.1.13
Pretending to be a legend of rock in order to rack up a six-figure hospital bill may sound reasonable — to a crazy person — but it’s likely just going to end up with you in a whole mess of trouble. [More]
Minnesota Hospital Apologizes For Misplacing Body Of Stillborn Infant In The Laundry
By 4.17.13
A Minnesota hospital has the weighty task today of explaining, and subsequently apologizing, as to how the body of a stillborn infant went missing from the morgue, only to show up at a laundry service miles away. Officials say they still have questions about the sequence of events that led to the unfortunate handling and discovery of the body. [More]
Hospital Sends Patient To Collections For Bill His Insurance Company Had Already Paid
By 3.15.13
We understand that hospitals often get patients using the emergency room as a “free” clinic, and that it may be less of a headache to turn unpaid bills over to a collections agency than it is to chase down debtors on your own. But hospitals shouldn’t be tossing patients to the collections lions if the patients’ insurance provider has already paid the bill. [More]
Hospital Sends Lab Test Results For 10 Patients To Random Stranger
By 2.11.13
Even in this era of over-sharing and supposed transparency, most people don’t want their medical files shared with anyone who doesn’t absolutely need to see them. But all it takes is one person to not pay attention when stuffing envelopes for private medical documents to be shared with the world. [More]
Govt. To Publish Data On What Drug & Device Makers Pay To Individual Doctors & Hospitals
By 2.1.13
Want to know if your doctor is receiving free lunches and other perks from Pfizer, GSK or some other huge player in the pharmaceuticals or medical device business? Starting in Sept. 2014, that information will be made available to consumers courtesy of the federal government. [More]
Healthy Shmealthy: Business Is Hopping At Taco Bell Located Inside Brooklyn Hospital
By 10.8.12
Hospitals always bring to mind bastions of health, where the unwell go to get well and we’re sure everyone is getting the appropriate amount of calories in their cups of Jell-O. And then there’s the hospital in Brooklyn — right smack in the middle of health advocate Mayor Bloomberg’s territory — that dashes that image right to pieces with the existence of a Taco Bell located in the building. [More]
When Hospital Systems Acquire Private Practices, We All Pay More For Health Care
By 8.27.12
A growing number of private health care practices are being purchased by hospitals. And even if that practice remains changed in all other ways, you can expect that the costs for procedures and visits will increase dramatically. [More]
