Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE NEW IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • COVID-19
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Digital Health
  • Insights
    • ACA 10 Years After
    • Best Practices
    • Special Reports
    • Innovations
  • Data/Lists
    • Rankings/Lists
    • Interactive Databases
    • Data Points
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Custom Media Event: ESG Summit
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Transformation Summit
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Supply Chain Revenue Cycle
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Virtual Health
    • - Future of Healthcare Staffing
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • MORE +
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Government
June 19, 2013 01:00 AM

HFMA looks at solutions to patients' medical-debt burdens

Gregg Blesch
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Faced with the prospect of Congress and regulators stepping in to do it for them, the Healthcare Financial Management Association is crafting new standards for the delicate matter of medical debt.

    The HFMA walked through the conclusions of a task force on the challenge on Wednesday, the closing day of its annual conference in Orlando, Fla.

    This fruits of this work will follow the draft guidelines that the association unveiled at the start of the meeting. Those address the appropriate ways for providers to help patients understand their financial responsibilities as they seek and get care. The additional set of best practices concerns what happens from the time a provider sends a bill until a collections agency communicates an unpaid balance to a credit bureau.

    Failures in the practices and handoffs along that path are angering patients and damaging their credit scores, said Chad Mulvany, a technical director at the HFMA. As medical debt increasingly hinders consumers from the car and home purchases counted on to juice the economy, lawmakers are paying attention.

    Patients paid $307.7 billion out-of-pocket for healthcare services in 2011, according CMS actuaries. That's above and beyond what consumers pay for insurance, noted Mark Rukavina, a principal with Community Health Advisors and former executive director of the Access Project, a healthcare consumer advocacy group.

    A significant portion of medical debts on credit reports are for sums less than $100, Rukavina said, and surveys suggest that many of the accounts reach that stage because patients didn't understand their bills. "I live and work in this world and I'm very confused at times," he said.

    The broad outline of recommendations shared Wednesday include multiple attempts to "screen and scrub" accounts for insurance coverage, eligibility for charity care and Medicaid, death and bankruptcy. Members also emphasized the importance of making multiple attempts to reconcile information, so the collections agency isn't in the dark about payments made or other changes in the account.

    The task force also concluded that outside billing vendors and even collections agencies should have a broader array of patient information at their disposal so they can communicate meaningfully when they get patients on the phone.

    The members are also studying the feasibility of making "full file reporting" a standard practice for medical debt. That means a full record of the payments a patient has made on the account goes to the credit reporting bureau along with the sum that is owed. Those payments can have a positive effect on the consumer's credit score. And if patients know that, they are more likely to make an attempt to pay down the balance, even if they can't afford to pay it off, said Dan Johnson, president of Experian Healthcare, a division of credit reporting firm Experian.

    There are at least two pending bills in Congress seeking to address elements of the process, said Lucia Lebens, director of governmental affairs for ACA International, a trade group of the collections and credit agency. One, for example, would ensure that medical debts are removed from credit reports within 45 days after a patient pays the balance. Another would require collections firms to give consumers a clearly stated deadline for when the balance would hit their credit report.

    The industry also expects the new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to dig into the matter.

    The HFMA's Mulvany said the work of the task force, along with the association's related work on patient financial interactions and price transparency, could be the "last chance we as an industry have to get this right."

    If they don't, he said, Congress is likely to address it for them. "It's not going to be a solution we like."

    Follow Gregg Blesch on Twitter: @MHgblesch

    More [email protected] Coverage

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    medicare and money
    Inspector General pushes CMS to recover $226M in Medicare overpayments
    Ezike 800.jpg
    Former Illinois health chief Ezike under scrutiny by state's top ethics investigator
    Sponsored Content
    Modern Healthcare Alert: Sign up for this breaking news email to be kept in the loop as urgent healthcare business news unfolds.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • COVID-19
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Digital Health
    • Insights
      • ACA 10 Years After
      • Best Practices
      • Special Reports
      • Innovations
    • Data/Lists
      • Rankings/Lists
      • Interactive Databases
      • Data Points
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top 25 Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Transformation Summit
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Supply Chain Revenue Cycle
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Virtual Health
        • - Future of Healthcare Staffing
      • Custom Media Event: ESG Summit
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • MORE +
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing