By Doug Aldeen
The Kaiser Foundation recently reported that in Texas nearly half of nonprofit hospitals say they will bill patients before screening them for financial aid. And most hospitals will not offer refunds to patients who pay and are eventually found to qualify for free care.
Many patients are unaware that hospitals offer financial help. Others are stymied by onerous applications that require people to turn over financial information, such as bank statements, car notes, pay stubs, retirement accounts, and even divorce records. “It’s like going through a tax audit,” said Stanford University health economist Neale Mahoney, who studies medical debt. “The current system is broken.”
Sunday Morning Bathroom Read Takeaway:
Big Picture: 56.8% of US qualifies either in whole or in part for financial assistance at 400% of the FPL.
More to the point, Texas Health Resources ( or any hospital) owes refunds to all those patients that qualified for financial assistance either in whole or in part: What Texas Reveals About the Obstacles to Getting Hospital Financial Aid – KFF Health News