Monterey, CA Hospitals Will Not Be Able To Charge The Uninsured Outrageous Prices Under New Health Care Reform Rules

View From A Nonprofit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

One little known fact about the so-called Obama Care (Health Care Reform or the Affordable Care Act) is that it's going to eliminate outrageous hospitals charges to the uninsured.  Currently, hospitals have "rack rates" which are ridiculously high charges for each item.  Private insurance companies, Medicare and Medi-Cal negotiate their own rates, so the only people who actually pay these outrageous fees are the uninsured.  One of our Platinum sponsors, Alliance Home Health, sees this on a daily basis as they deal with billing on Medicare and Medi-Cal patients.  The delta between the actual charge and the reimbursement rate is huge.  A Time Magazine. cover story earlier this year entitled "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us" profiled Emilia Gilbert who was 61 when and accident occurred and she had to be rushed to the ER after a fall.  However, she was in a catch-22 situation.  She only made $22,000 per year which was too high to qualify for Medi-Cal, and at 61 years old she was too young to qualify for Medicare.  She was charged $9,418 for treatment for a broken nose.  However, if she was on Medicare, the hospital would have been reimbursed only $825.  But since she was uninsured and paying rack rate, she was charged $6,538.  The hospital sued her when she didn't pay the bill and a judge ordered her to repay it at the rate of $20 per week.  Under the Affordable Care Act, these shenanigans won't be allowed.  If hospitals charge patients in need of financial aid more than they are being reimbursed by the average rate they are paid by private insurance and Medicare, their tax exempt status will be revoked.  That's a great idea which should have been implemented years ago.  No one should be able to have a non-profit status and then charge people in need exorbitant prices.