Just think about it, soon most hospital may have a loan officer available for you to afford that surgery or you could sign up for pre-surgery/reserved bed payment schedule just in case you need a quick appendectomy – PB/TK
Insight: Ballooning bills – More U.S. hospitals pushing patients to pay before care – April 13 2017
Last year, the Henry County Health Center in Iowa started providing patients with a cost estimate along with pre-surgery medical advice.
The 25-bed rural hospital in the southwest corner of the state implemented the protocol because of mounting unpaid bills from insured patients, a group that had previously not raised red flags.
Henry County is one of hundreds of U.S. hospitals trying to cope with an unexpected consequence of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, known as Obamacare: millions more Americans have health insurance, but it requires them to spend thousands of dollars before their insurer kicks in a dime.
Since U.S. hospitals do not want to end up footing the bill, they are now experimenting with pre-payment strategies for patients, with a growing number requiring payment before scheduled care and offering no interest loans, according to interviews with more than two dozen hospitals, doctors, patients, lenders and healthcare experts.
Continue to reuters.com article: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-hospital-payments-idUSKBN17F1CM
