Hospitals Report Growing Levels of Bad Debt as Many Patients with High-Deductible Plans Are Unable to Pay Their Medical Bills
Pathology groups and clinical laboratories should be taking steps to collect from patients at the point of care, as a key strategy to minimize patient bad debt
Here’s some bad news for hospital Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and an early warning for clinical laboratory administrators. A rising number of patients with high deductible health plans (HDHPs) are unable to pay their medical bills.
Enrollment in HDHPs has soared in recent years because more employers and health insurers have adopted these plans. HDHPs also are called consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) and typically have annual family deductibles of between $5,000 and $10,000. (more…)
