Kara Gardeen knew there would be blood, cramps and grief. Her doctor had confirmed the worst: The baby she and her husband had hoped to welcome to their family had not survived. Gardeen was about nine weeks pregnant. Now, she needed to find time to take the pills that would allow the miscarriage to conclude more quickly, instead of possibly waiting days or even weeks for the miscarriage to happen naturally.
A new federal ban on surprise medical bills gives the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a path to limit how much medical debt is posted to consumer credit reports. The CFPB recently announced that it was looking into whether uncollected medical bills should be included on credit reports at all. Such debts are often inaccurate and not always representative of a person’s creditworthiness, the consumer watchdog said.
The Colorado Supreme Court will this week consider hospital billing practices after a woman who expected to pay $1,337 for surgery at St. Anthony North Health Campus was billed $303,709. The case pits attorneys for patient Lisa French against Centura Health, which operates the nonprofit hospital in Westminster. The dispute centers on a contract French signed in which she agreed to pay “all charges of the hospital” for her care.
Fourth quarter reports for insurance providers in the U.S. spotlight UnitedHealth Group as the most profitable payer of 2021—at $17.3 billion, more than double the profit of the next closest competitor, and owning almost half of the total profit of six major insurers.
Americans dealing with the worst inflation in 40 years are getting a taste of the rapid price increases that healthcare consumers have long endured. The Labor Department recently announced that consumer prices increased by 7.5 percent over the last year. Yet national health expenditure data reveal healthcare consumers have faced similarly elevated inflation levels for decades. President Biden and his administration can tame overall inflation by addressing this large and long-running source.
The federal government has penalized 764 hospitals — including more than three dozen it simultaneously rates as among the best in the country — for having the highest numbers of patient infections and potentially avoidable complications.
