Chasing Rainbows: Photograph by Myriam Casper, National Geographic Your Shot
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“Everything is
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created twice,
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first in the mind
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and then
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in reality.”
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~Robin S. Sharma~
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Posts Tagged ‘doctors’
18 Sep
How we create?
23 Jan
NPR part three::: I avoid at all costs going to a hospital,,
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In fact, the hospital brings in so much money that all of this wage garnishment turns out to be a minor item on its balance sheet. Totaling up all the money the hospital seized from patients’ wages last year, according to court records, shows that wage garnishment brought in just half of 1 percent of its revenues.
Other hospitals in Missouri have found ways to avoid suing low-income patients. BJC Healthcare, a nonprofit, operates a chain of 12 hospitals, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, the largest in the state. In 2013, the BJC hospital chain filed just 26 lawsuits. Unlike Heartland, BJC automatically slices 25 percent off its standard rates for uninsured patients and never includes interest on payment plans, said June Fowler, BJC’s spokeswoman.
By comparison, Heartland hospital’s debt collection arm filed over 2,200 lawsuits in Missouri courts in 2013. “It’s not fair to those who are paying to not be aggressive with those who have the ability and aren’t paying,” Wagner says.
She says the hospital does everything it can to fulfill its mission as a nonprofit, charitable institution. Patients are offered multiple opportunities to qualify for financial assistance and avoid the possibility of legal action, she says. It would be better for everyone, Wagner says, “if we attempt to work on things before it gets to this level.”
In recent years, the hospital has made its charity care policy more generous. Heartland’s policies state that anyone making less than three times the poverty line can qualify to be billed at a reduced rate, similar to what an insurance company pays, and then get that amount cut in half. If they make less than twice the poverty line, the entire bill is forgiven.
The hospital makes every effort to let patients know that they may qualify for help, Wagner says. “Financial counselors are available if a patient asks for that.” But if patients don’t utilize those resources, she says, the hospital must take action.
“No one goes into this with the goal or the desire to ruin someone’s life,” Wagner says. “But at the same time, the services were rendered, and we have to figure out how to get them paid for.”
Asked why the hospital sues more patients than any other in the state, Wagner said, “I don’t know.”
Last year, about 8,700 Heartland patients had their bills cut or zeroed out, according to data provided by Heartland. About half of those were uninsured, while the rest were spared full payment of deductibles or other obligations not covered by their insurance.
But uninsured patients like the Heries who don’t receive charity care — either because they were turned down or never applied — are billed at Heartland’s standard rates, the sticker price that insurers never pay. In 2013, more than two-thirds of the accounts the hospital’s debt collection division handled involved uninsured patients, according to data provided by Heartland.
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23 Jan
Hospitals do not want this to get out,,,, they make people suffer for greed, money, corporation!!!
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NPR: part two;
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“They’re Greedy’
Back in 2005, Keith Herie was working as a truck driver making about $30,000 a year. His wife, Kathleen, was a stay-at-home mom with their two kids. The couple says they couldn’t afford health insurance and Keith’s employer didn’t offer it.
But sometimes you have to go to the hospital anyway. That’s what happened when Kathleen doubled over with a burst appendix and needed an emergency operation. “I felt sharp pains, I was vomiting, I was running a fever,” she says. “It was bad.”
That operation meant upwards of $14,000 in medical bills. It was a staggering debt for the Heries. They say the hospital told them they could apply for financial aid, but when he went to inquire about that, Keith says, “they basically told me I made too much.”
Just a few months after the operation, the hospital expanded its charity care policy. The Heries, given their income, would have qualified under the new policy. But the hospital didn’t make the change retroactive.
In 2006, the hospital sued the Heries and got a court judgment against them for the full bill plus legal fees — more than $18,000 in total. Ever since, the hospital has been taking 10 percent out of Keith Herie’s paychecks.
He says that has also hurt his credit score. “Where I should be making a $250-a-month car payment, I’m making $368 in payments,” he says. Likewise, the mar on his credit has prevented him from refinancing his mortgage to take advantage of lower interest rates. “It affects everything,” Keith says.
To make some more money, Kathleen Herie got a low-wage retail job at Sam’s Club. But then Heartland hospital began seizing 25 percent of her paychecks after taxes — meaning both she and her husband were now getting their pay docked at the maximum level allowed under state and federal law. On top of that, the hospital placed a lien against their home — which also prevents them from refinancing. According to a Heartland operations memo, this is done in all cases in which the company has won a judgment exceeding $1,000.
“They’re greedy,” Kathleen says. “I owe more in interest on those bills than I do the bill alone.”
Court records show that the couple has now paid more than $15,000 on this debt. But because the hospital has been charging them 9 percent interest on that large bill for going on 10 years now, the interest has added up — so the couple still owes $10,000 more.
“It’s like a never-never plan,” Keith says. “You’re never going to get rid of it and you’re never going to get ahead of it.”
Is Seizing Wages Worth The Effort For Hospitals?
As far as the hospital’s finances go — it’s doing well. Heartland made $605 million in gross revenues last year, and $45 million of that was profit. “We’ve been very successful in terms of being profitable and being a good community asset,” says Tama Wagner, chief brand officer for Heartland.
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23 Dec
The Grinch visited my household last night!!,
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Three days before Christmas, after five at night, a process server knocked on our door. The hospital was serving a garnishment claim from an emergency room, ICU visit.
Let me ask your opinion on the way our hospitals are treating us. What is the rationale in this example.
A single mom with three kids under six has to quit her career, her job because of garnishments from the local hospital.
She can not afford to pay the babysitter with what is left of her check. How do you pay rent or buy food? Does illness sentence us to poverty. A family to homelessness?
Does a family deserve annihilation because of illness?
Are these doctors and hospitals healers?
A recent front page article, detailed how the corporately owned hospital made record profits.
An illness these days can destroy not only you but your whole family.
With excellent insurance, I am still making payments for my Guillian Beret illness, ICU stay from two full years ago.
Deductibles can run over $10,000 now.
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PTSD - A Way Out.com 