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Witness Testimony
The Honorable Joe Barton
A Review of Hospital Billing and Collection Practices "They Are the Ones Charged an Arm and a Leg" Barton Issues Statement on How Hospitals Bill Uninsured Patients WASHINGTON
- U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, issued the following statement today as part of a hearing entitled,
"A Review of Hospital Billing and Collection Practices": "I share Chairman
Greenwood's concerns with what we have been learning about the billing and
collection practices of too many hospitals with regard to uninsured/self-pay
patients.I regret my inability to
attend today's hearing, but I look forward to learning more about these issues
as well as the steps the hospital industry is taking to address them. "Hospitals across
America have long been community leaders in helping those less fortunate.Last year alone, hospitals provided $22 billion in charity care in their
respective communities. For this,
hospitals should be commended. "There has been a
substantial group of needy patients, however, sometimes left out of these
efforts.I am concerned that
uninsured/self-pay patients are too often expected to pay far more than others
for their care and then aggressively pursued for this inflated debt.I am committed to ensuring fair and reasonable treatment by hospitals in
their billing and collections practices - for every patient regardless of
their means or manner of payment. "All hospitals have
specific charges for each service they provide and compile these thousands of
individual charges into one price-list catalog called the charge master.However, these charge master rates do not reflect the actual cost and
reasonable profit of providing that service.Mark-ups have rendered these charges sometimes hundreds of percent above
the actual costs to the hospital. "As health care
costs continue to rise, these mark-ups also continue to increase.A study just recently published shows that hospital prices increased 8
percent in 2003, the sixth straight year of accelerating price increases and the
largest one-year spike in a decade.Managed
care, commercial insurance and the government pay hospitals substantially less
than charge master rates. But the
uninsured/self-pay patient is left with the short straw and the full charge.They are the ones often expected pay these full mark-ups.They are the ones paying the sticker price.They are the ones charged an arm and a leg in order to get one or the
other fixed. "The collection
tactics sometimes used to pursue these inflated bills can be even more
disconcerting.There have been a
number of reports and articles over the past year describing some particularly
aggressive collection practices.Collections
are an unfortunate reality of business life, but every corporation has a duty to
make sure any such policies and practices are measured and reasonable.And let me be clear, I hold the individual corporation responsible,
particularly in health care, for knowing and monitoring the practices of any
collection agent acting on its behalf. "I am encouraged
that the industry has seemed to have heard the message and taken recent steps to
revisit and enhance its billing and collection policies.However, we all know policies can be little more than talk; the proof is
in the results.From the industry
to the systems, to the hospitals, to finance departments and to the men and
women sitting across the table from a patient seeking to meet their fair
obligations in a fair and respectful manner, I look forward to hearing how your
commitments have taken action. "I want to also say
that I am pleased this committee has been able to facilitate communication
between hospitals and the Department of Health and Human Services on these
matters and I expect that dialogue to continue." # # # Related Documents |
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