Industry Brief:
- While many more patients may get insurance under the ACA, that coverage will often come with large deductibles and co-pays.
- To collect co-pays and deductibles, hospitals will need to try and collect the patient's share of costs before service if at all possible -- or risk never seeing a penny.
- Unable to meet these obligations, many patients are likely to default, and while they're at it, end up hating the hospital that charged these fees.
Dive Insight:
When health reform was first under discussion, it was widely believed that hospitals would benefit greatly, as there would be far fewer uninsured patients coming into their emergency departments. But the truth is that many ACA plans impose an enormous out-of-pocket cost on patients, particularly if they need hospitalization.The net effect may be that hospitals see as much bad debt from ED visitors as they did in the past. This is a serious failing in the health reform scheme which needs to be addressed.