Calif. rules to bar illegal hospital bills

[Stan]

Calif. rules to bar illegal hospital bills

By DAVID KRAVETS, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California hospitals can no longer recover from insured patients the difference between a hospital's actual costs and what insurance companies pay for medical services, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court ruled unanimously in favor of Joel Parnell, 32, who was injured in a car crash while riding in a taxi in 1997. He spent about a week in San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, generating a $20,000 bill from back injuries.

Parnell's insurance company and Adventist Health System/West, the hospital's owner, agreed to accept $5,000 as "payment in full" for services Parnell received. But the hospital went after Parnell when he sued the motorist who smashed into the taxi. Parnell won $15,000 from his personal injury case, and the hospital put a lien on it.

Parnell then sued the hospital, saying such a lien could only be placed on his damages award if he was not insured and didn't pay his bill.

Parnell's attorneys argued the hospital had abused a 44-year-old state law that allows hospitals the right to sue or take other measures against uninsured patients who don't pay their medical bills.

"The hospitals have taken a well-intentioned law, and tortured and twisted it to prey on the insured by extorting and extracting from them," said attorney Ralph Wegis.

Representatives of the San Joaquin hospital did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

Dozens of hospitals urged the court to side with the hospital's billing practice. Their attorney, Barry Landsberg, said the disputed practice was lawful and that such liens are put in place because hospitals "are confronting severe challenges to their very existence."

[Stan]

I too have been a victim of this, the hospital bills a person for the difference between what the insurance pays, and what they want, even though there is an agreement with the insurance people and their clients, that the insurance pays the bills, less any agreed upon deductable.

Someone should do a class action suit against them for this kind of fraud.

[cricket]

Actually, what I think will happen (and, really, what should happen in this country) is the hospitals will no longer agree with insurance companies as to accepting lower payments.

Hospitals will begin to only accept what their true costs are. Health insurance rates will go up. People will then complain about how the insurance companies are cheating us out of our money. Their blood pressure will rise and they'll end up in the hospital. They'll lose out on work during that time. Their employer will be out of an employee. The employer will have to raise prices for goods/services to make up the loss. Inflation will rise. The hospitals' costs will rise. They'll charge more. Insurance rates will go up. Someone else will have to deal with the stress of paying more. They'll end up in the hospital...

[Bravus]

Makes socialised medicine sound kinda tempting, no?

(grins, ducks and runs back to Canada)

[cricket]

Despite the oft misquoted saying, " If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain," I'm still a socialist at heart.

Does it sound tempting to me? You bet. Then again, I'm not quite 40 yet!!!