The doctor will see your credit now

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

The folks who invented the credit score for lenders are hard at work developing a similar tool for hospitals and other health care providers.

The project, dubbed “MedFICO” in some early press reports, will aid hospitals in assessing a patient’s ability to pay their medical bills. But privacy advocates are worried that the notorious errors that have caused frequent criticism of the credit system will also cause trouble with any attempt to create a health-related risk score. They also fear that a low score might impact the quality of the health care that patients receive.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/01/the-doctor-wi-1.html#posts

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Specializes in SICU.

Oh dear lord. That is just scary as hell to me. :o

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Specializes in OB, Telephone Triage, Chart Review/Code.

I landed in a hospital 4yrs ago w/o insurance. $15,000 for a 4-day stay with antibiotics. Ended up in collection because hospital wanted higher payments. It's already on my record.

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Let the lawsuits begin. Disgusting.

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

geez, how many patients will be approached with the attitude of, "oh, their fico score's bad....let's hold their meds and expensive treatments cause we'll have to eat the cost....." And people wonder why the ERs are used as PCPs...this would just make it worse....

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Specializes in LTC, home health, private care.

This terrifies me. You know it will negatively affect care. :o

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.

Good Grief Charlie Brown, what will they think of next/

We have a pt that has been in since 11-24-07, no insurance, I&D x 2 to RLE with wound vacs x3 and MRSA in the same leg.

So how are they going to handle pt's like this ????

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Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

We are already managing patients by their ability to pay, why do you think the ERs are so full. For now No One can be Denied care in an ER, the docs offices have a sign at the desk that tells you to take a hike if you can't pay the fee up front. You also sign a form that says you are responsible for payment of services up front.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Patients like that will be SOL, that's what.

Sheesh........

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Elections are coming. You know what to do to stop this.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.
Elections are coming. You know what to do to stop this.

What?

Since this is not a piece of legislation, I'm not sure how it would be impacted by the upcoming elections.

The free market economy would probably be a better approach to "killing" this idea. Write letters to healthcare providers in your area informing them that you will not utilize their services if they adopt this practice. Contact your insurance company and ask them to remove any providers from their network who check patient's credit scores. Write letters to the editor of your paper, and call in to local talk shows sharing your opinion of this practice.

Government and legislation are not always the answer.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I'm an APN and I see this frequently. I tried to make an appt for one of my patients this week for a GI MD. However, she had an outstanding bill and was required to pay $$60 up front before they would see her. I ended up talking with the administrator of the practice and asked her point blank was she refusing to see a pt who had an immediate need? She asked me in a very nasty voice, "Do YOU see pts that can't pay?" I told her yes, that our practice did see pts w/o regard to ability to pay. She then practically spit out the words that I was a "CLINICAL" person and had no knowledge of the "BUSINESS" end of things.

Disgusting.

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