Monday, April 04, 2005

One Hospital System Will Stop Aggressive Collection Tactics Targeted at the Uninsured

Meanwhile, from the Minnesota Star Tribune, the state Attorney General's office has secured an agreement fromthe large Fairview Health Services system that it will stop aggressive collection tactics targeted at people without health insurance, and will start offering discounts off its "rack rates" to them. Sounds like a good idea, too. Previously, the Attorney General reported that "Fairview had become so narrowly focused on profits that bill collectors were sent after patients who didn't owe money or could have qualified for its patient-aid programs."
Perhaps these two small stories offer some little bit of hope that we can get away from the sort of culture described by the doctors surveyed by ACPE (see my post below), where "ultimately, the bottom line corrupts absolutely."

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