Bankruptcy law firm Patrick Burns & Associates uses the recent unpleasantness with Accretive Health to make some points about hospitals, the Affordable Care Act, and medical debt.
“The Accretive case is a vivid reminder of the problems posed by medical debt, which is a common cause of personal bankruptcy,” according to the release.
The biggest take-away for patient financial services professionals from this write-up is: Make sure you have financial aid policies in place. And more than just having them in place, it will be important to have them in an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand format. Many hospitals are required to actively distribute these policies to patients. Financial assistance policies that read like the fine print on a credit card statement are going to get a lot of media scrutiny and could damage your hospital’s reputation.
Mike Bevel is an Editor at insidePatientFinance and insideARM.com.
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