Tag: hospital

Viewpoint | American Overall health Care Is Dying. This Hospital Could Overcome It.

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A federal ballot evaluate like this has never ever been held in our state. A referendum would ask Us residents to target on the proposal instead than on a prospect or political party. There’s purpose to consider that a direct vote could assist us fix our well being care quagmire. In a recent study, about two out of three Individuals said it was the government’s responsibility to provide common health and fitness protection. One more review done in my household condition showed the exact same, with 7 out of 10 Texans declaring common wellness protection important.

It won’t be quick. Scholars have indicated that it may get multiple election cycles, alongside with volunteers accumulating thousands and thousands of signatures across the country, to reach this kind of a monumental feat. Us citizens are by now split about how private insurance would determine into the equation. If history is any indicator, these who benefit from our bloated procedure — the huge firms that continue to keep American individuals in a stranglehold — would brew confusion about the ideas in an energy to resist any improve.

If the referendum resulted in a the greater part of “yes” votes, it would mail a crystal clear information to Congress and the president: Construct us a universal health and fitness care procedure. The difficult function of setting up that program and a way of shelling out for it would start there. Medicare for All, as proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, would eliminate private insurance that duplicated what was made available in the one-payer system. This standard coverage would remove patients’ out-of-pocket charges and make it more durable for hospitals and physicians to cherry-decide people with more beneficial insurance coverage. Several iterations of one-payer designs have sprung from Medicare for All, such as some that would protect non-public insurance policy. An altogether distinctive strategy, a community option, would protect Americans’ choice to buy personal insurance policy. The disadvantage would be that without a mandate, well being care gaps would most likely nonetheless exist.

Controlling health care expenses is a challenge that has extensive confounded People. For this motive, I favor a little something unique, a public wellness care method modeled just after the a single I’ve worked in for the previous 12 years. The method presents health and fitness treatment specifically — without having the intermediary of coverage — to practically 50 percent its sufferers.

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Hospital systems get millions in property tax breaks

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By Michelle Crouch

Co-published with the Charlotte Ledger

Every year, Terry Taylor-Allen and her husband, William, pay property taxes on their bungalow in Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood. Although the bill has skyrocketed since they moved in 30 years ago, they know the money supports schools, police and other important services. 

The owner of the houses next door, meanwhile, don’t pay a cent on those homes. 

That’s because the houses on either side of them are owned by The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, a governmental entity otherwise known as Atrium Health. 

Because it’s a hospital authority, Atrium — which had $8.9 billion in revenue in 2021 — does not have to pay taxes on property it owns in Charlotte and across the region. 

That’s true even if the land isn’t used for medical purposes. 

In fact, one tax-exempt Atrium property in Cornelius is home to a PDQ Tenders chicken restaurant. You’ll pay taxes when you buy the chicken tenders, but Atrium doesn’t pay taxes on the land the restaurant sits on.  

Charlotte’s other health care giant, Novant Health, also gets significant tax exemptions. Because it’s a nonprofit hospital and not a public one, it gets a tax break only on property it can show it is using for its charitable purpose.

“If you think about the cumulative total of everything (the hospitals) have taken off the tax rolls over the years, that’s a Godzilla number,” said Taylor-Allen, who lives on Fountain View next to the site where Atrium’s Carolinas Medical Center is expanding. “Think about all the school needs and how much that money could help low-income people who don’t have health care, housing or food.” 

As Mecklenburg County officials discuss a possible tax increase this year, a Charlotte Ledger/N.C. Health News analysis reveals that the two hospitals now own properties assessed at more than $2.4 billion — but which is tax-exempt — in Mecklenburg County alone. That’s based on 2022 assessed values; it’s likely worth more based on the 2023 values recently mailed out. 

If Atrium and Novant were fully taxed in 2022, they would have been Mecklenburg County’s fourth- and fifth-largest property taxpayers, respectively, after only Duke Energy, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. And they would have contributed an additional $23 million to the city and county tax base, according to calculations using 2022 assessed values and tax rates. 

That’s enough to pay the salaries of 527 entry-level teachers in

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Medical debt soars for consumers with hospital credit cards : Shots

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Many hospitals are now partnering with financing companies to offer payment plans when patients and their families can’t afford their bills. The catch: the plans can come with interest that significantly increases a patient’s debt.

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Many hospitals are now partnering with financing companies to offer payment plans when patients and their families can’t afford their bills. The catch: the plans can come with interest that significantly increases a patient’s debt.

sesame/Getty Images

Patients at North Carolina-based Atrium Health get what looks like an enticing pitch when they go to the nonprofit hospital system’s website: a payment plan from lender AccessOne. The plans offer “easy ways to make monthly payments” on medical bills, the website says. You don’t need good credit to get a loan. Everyone is approved. Nothing is reported to credit agencies.

In Minnesota, Allina Health encourages its patients to sign up for an account with MedCredit Financial Services to “consolidate your health expenses.” In Southern California, Chino Valley Medical Center, part of the Prime Healthcare chain, touts “promotional financing options with the CareCredit credit card to help you get the care you need, when you need it.”

As Americans are overwhelmed with medical bills, patient financing is now a multibillion-dollar business, with private equity and big banks lined up to cash in when patients and their families can’t pay for care. By one estimate from research firm IBISWorld, profit margins top 29% in the patient financing industry, seven times what is considered a solid hospital margin.

Why Black Americans are more likely to be saddled with medical debt

Hospitals and other providers, which historically put their patients in interest-free payment plans, have welcomed the financing, signing contracts with lenders and enrolling patients in financing plans with rosy promises about convenient bills and easy payments.

For patients, the payment plans often mean something more ominous: yet more debt.

Millions of people are paying interest on these plans, on top of what they owe for medical or dental care, an investigation by KHN and NPR shows. Even with lower rates than a traditional credit card, the interest can add hundreds, even thousands of dollars to medical bills and ratchet up financial strains when patients are most vulnerable.

Robin Milcowitz, a Florida woman who found herself enrolled in an AccessOne loan at a Tampa hospital in 2018 after having a hysterectomy for ovarian cancer, said she was appalled by the financing

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Mistaken identity leads to big hospital bill mix-up : Shots

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In 2013, Grace E. Elliott spent a night in a hospital in Florida for a kidney infection that was treated with antibiotics. Eight years later, she got a large bill from the health system that bought the hospital. This bill was for an unrelated surgical procedure she didn’t need and never received. It was a case of mistaken identity, she knew, but proving that wasn’t easy.

Shelby Knowles for KHN


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Shelby Knowles for KHN

In 2013, Grace E. Elliott spent a night in a hospital in Florida for a kidney infection that was treated with antibiotics. Eight years later, she got a large bill from the health system that bought the hospital. This bill was for an unrelated surgical procedure she didn’t need and never received. It was a case of mistaken identity, she knew, but proving that wasn’t easy.

Shelby Knowles for KHN

Earlier this year, Grace Elizabeth Elliott got a mysterious hospital bill for medical care she had never received.

She soon discovered how far a clerical error can reach — even across a continent — and how frustrating it can be to fix.

During a college break in 2013, Elliott, then 22, began to feel faint and feverish while visiting her parents in Venice, Fla., which is about an hour south of Tampa. Her mother, a nurse, drove her to a facility that locals knew simply as Venice Hospital.

In the emergency department, Elliott was diagnosed with a kidney infection and held overnight before being discharged with a prescription for antibiotics, a common treatment for the illness.

“My hospital bill was about $100, which I remember because that was a lot of money for me as an undergrad,” said Elliott, now 31.

She recovered and eventually moved to California to teach preschool. Venice Regional Medical Center was bought by Community Health Systems, based in Franklin, Tenn., in 2014 and eventually renamed ShorePoint Health Venice.

The kidney infection and overnight stay in the E.R. would have been little more than a memory for Elliott.

Then another bill came.

The Patients: Grace E. Elliott, 31, a preschool teacher living with her husband in San Francisco, and Grace A. Elliott, 81, a retiree in Venice, Fla.

Medical Services: For Grace E., an emergency department visit and overnight stay, plus antibiotics to treat a kidney infection in 2013. For Grace A., a shoulder replacement and rehabilitation services

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Hartford Health care is growing throughout Connecticut. Its urgent care facilities have reduced expenses than hospital emergency rooms. – Hartford Courant

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As Hartford Healthcare extends its access across Connecticut, the selection of its urgent treatment facilities that offer you individuals an option to pricey crisis rooms is expanding, much too.

The 28 centers are much afield from Hartford, stretching north to Enfield, south to Branford and West Haven, and east to New London and Norwich. In January, Hartford Health care opened an urgent treatment centre in Milford, its 1st on Connecticut’s shoreline.

[ Hartford HealthCare has expanded across Connecticut, but anti-competitive lawsuit ‘seems pretty novel,’ analyst says ]

“It’s a extra purposeful move to disrupt ourselves,” reported James P. Cardon, Hartford HealthCare’s govt vice president and chief medical integration officer.

Hartford Health care is expanding its existence in Connecticut, including into West Haven. (Courant file photo)

Urgent care centers address ailments and injuries that aren’t lifetime-threatening, provide X-rays and offer you COVID-19 analysis and tests. Patients may walk in or reserve a place and pre-sign up on the web. Hartford Health care describes its GoHealth Urgent Care centers as an “on-desire buyer-centric care system that serves as the digital and actual physical front door” to its health and fitness treatment procedure.

“We acknowledged years ago that we necessary to offer new ways to each boost access for urgent care outside the house of the most important treatment business even though at the similar time give superior choices for those who would have long gone to the more pricey crisis office for that care,” explained Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and main government officer of Hartford Health care.

Spencer Perlman, taking care of companion and director of wellness treatment analysis at Veda Partners in Bethesda, Md., claimed the industry has focused on urgent care for a although.

“No question receiving care in the emergency area is the most high priced position you can receive it,” he claimed.

By retaining overhead decrease than at an crisis space, urgent care centers can be rewarding for the company, Perlman mentioned. Urgent care centers enhance profitability since they never need the identical stage of staffing and sorts of products that need to be on hand in emergency rooms, he claimed.

Hartford Health care in 2020 posted $274.7 million in running revenue for its Hartford Healthcare Health-related Group, which incorporates urgent care facilities, key treatment, surgical treatment and specialty drugs. It was down from $330 million in 2019 before COVID-19. Its 2020 earnings accounted for about 6.5% of

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Hit with $7,146 for two hospital bills, a family sought health care in Mexico : Shots

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Claudia and Jesús Fierro of Yuma, Ariz., review their medical bills. They pay $1,000 a month for health insurance yet still owed more than $7,000 after two episodes of care at the local hospital.

Lisa Hornak for Kaiser Health News


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Lisa Hornak for Kaiser Health News

Claudia and Jesús Fierro of Yuma, Ariz., review their medical bills. They pay $1,000 a month for health insurance yet still owed more than $7,000 after two episodes of care at the local hospital.

Lisa Hornak for Kaiser Health News

The Fierro family of Yuma, Ariz., had a string of bad medical luck that started in December 2020.

That’s when Jesús Fierro Sr. was admitted to the hospital with a serious case of COVID-19. He spent 18 days at Yuma Regional Medical Center, where he lost 60 pounds. He came home weak and dependent on an oxygen tank.

Then, in June 2021, his wife, Claudia Fierro, fainted while waiting for a table at the local Olive Garden restaurant. She felt dizzy one minute and was in an ambulance on her way to the same medical center the next. She was told her magnesium levels were low and was sent home within 24 hours.

The family has health insurance through Jesús Sr.’s job, but it didn’t protect the Fierros from owing thousands of dollars. So when their son Jesús Fierro Jr. dislocated his shoulder, the Fierros — who hadn’t yet paid the bills for their own care — opted out of U.S. health care and headed south to the U.S.-Mexico border.

And no other bills came for at least one member of the family.

The patients: Jesús Fierro Sr., 48; Claudia Fierro, 51; and Jesús Fierro Jr., 17. The family has Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas health insurance through Jesús Sr.’s employment with NOV, formerly National Oilwell Varco, an American multinational oil company based in Houston.

Medical services: For Jesús Sr., 18 days of inpatient care for a severe case of COVID-19. For Claudia, fewer than 24 hours of emergency care after fainting. For Jesús Jr., a walk-in appointment for a dislocated shoulder.

Total bills: Jesús Sr. was charged $3,894.86. The total bill was $107,905.80 for COVID-19 treatment. Claudia was charged $3,252.74, including $202.36 for treatment from an out-of-network physician. The total bill was $13,429.50 for less than one day of treatment. Jesús Jr. was charged $5 (70 pesos)

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