How Healthy is Your Medical Credit Score?
By Bill W. Monday Dec 24, 2007 1:00pm
Dallas Morning News: Mortgage lenders aren't the only ones showing more interest in your credit score these days – the health industry is creating its own score to judge your ability to pay. [...]
The score is already raising questions from consumer advocacy groups that fear it will be checked before patients are treated. People with low medical credit scores could receive lower-quality care than those with a healthy medFICO, they argue.
Your life usually isn't at stake when a credit report turns up something negative, but in this case it very well might be. To some extent these types of decisions have already been being made by some hospitals, like when they just dump indigent patients on skid row, but this can only make it easier for other hospitals to make similar decisions for even more people. While a person's overall credit score is largely based on voluntary purchases which one typically has some control over (assuming there isn't an error), health care debt is largely involuntary. Even someone lucky enough to have health insurance can suddenly find themselves overwhelmed with debt they cannot afford through no fault of their own. A study two years ago found that "34% of U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 face problems with medical bills or have medical debt, although 62% of those individuals have health insurance."
So, what do you think will happen once the hospital finds out your "medical credit score" doesn't measure up?
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This doesn't surprise me - the car insurance industry does it, too.
I want to see their faces when someone dies because their credit score wasn't good enough for them to get medical care when they needed it.
Another Christmas present, courtesy of the United States Congress. Merry Christmas, dammit!
Those with low scores become involuntary organ donors for the high scorers.
I piss myself with laughter every time I hear someone from americon saying they have the best health service in the world. Seeing as I've lived in France, England and now Canada.
And even then, the low scorers, if they survive, get a bill for the operation.
If they don't survive, their heirs get the bill.
Should you happen to need the services of the American Health Care system, and your Medical Credit Score was good to begin with, they'll keep operating until it's zero.
28 years ago I broke both arms playing basketball while visiting my aunt in Orlando. After sitting in waiting rooms for three days, I finally got in for an Xray. Since I was not insured I had been completely turned away from everyplace else in town, and after the Xray I was given one sling and a prescription for tylenol 3. I can't stomach tylenol 3 so the prescription was tossed then and there. The sling didn't bring much comfort either.
I doubt anything is getting better.
Now my wife and I both have insurance through our jobs. Niether can use the others and keep the money for not using our own. Between the two of us we pay out around $1400 a month but I still ended up paying out $700 for a minor outpatient surgery for a skin cancer to be removed. Someone is doing very well out of that deal.
Don't get me wrong, I am thanful that we are in the situation to have any healthcare at all. I do feel pity for the millions that have no options.
...If living is thing that money could buy,
The rich would live, and the poor would die......
I'm a US citizen presently recovering in a UE state after a surgery that I had a week ago. It was free and done in a military hospital (believe it or not, but hundreds of military clinics around Europe treat regular citizens too and they do it for an apparent reason) It's good to have 2 passports. I wish every American citizen had this comfort. Yep, here I was diagnosed with "pre-existing condition" and couldn't wait until May. Maybe I didn't want to ruin my health or maybe that was just a common sense.
Don't let them scare you, they've been doing this for years. I don't pay $45 for a box of kleenex that I didn't want...EVER!. They're charging outrageously because they know National Healthcare is on the way. If the ins. people and us had refused to pay for outrageous charges a long time, the system would have worked, but GREED will shut them down.
I was diagnosed diabetic last year, my doctor warned me that the insurance company will be hostile and be prepared. He was correct. When I left that company for another job I received no cobra package as is required. After repeated calls, they sent one that was past the deadline in the enclosed letter. The rate was normal if in time(about 400), but once past that date it went to 3300. per month. When I called, they suggested that if I didn't like it, get a lawyer. They fought tooth and nail, even though it was to be a bridge for 2 months. I am branded now as high risk and it is very obvious these pigs want nothing to do with me. I'm not sure what happens if I get ill, but I'm sure pre-existing condition will come up and not be in my favor.
My vote for pres goes to the best medical plan that excludes insurance companies.
It's just a matter of time before we have a single payer plan her in the US...and we'll all be better off for it!!
The debate on healthcare has brought an important question to the fore. Do you want a healthcare provider whose primary obligation is the profit of a corporation, not in the care for patients?
JerryM @ 3:
I have never said that and never will! In fact I'm fucking screwed. I suffer from Diabetes (my sugar runs very high and had to be rushed to Hospital several times), and chronic cluster migraines. Last time I got hit with the Cluster it developed into (what the Doctors called) a complex migraine. I was paralysed for a day. Soon after I was released I recieved word from my insurance company (Aetna), that they wouldn't cover my Hospital stay due to the fact I didn't get a referral. The next week I received a $20,000 bill from the hospital and I have creditors calling me. Fuck em, their not getting a dime.
The Political Junkie @ 1:
Do you think they really will give a shit? Lets face it Government and corporate are merging in a new Corporatist (Fascist) experiment for America.
my medical credit score isn't worth a shit. I pay out the ass to cover my kid. I only want to cover him, I'm a badass muhfugguh and I don't trust MDs anyway (greedy little shills doing the bidding of a greedy corporate pig, and they're made to be comfortable with this from 1st year med school)... but I have to cover my son, so I have to cover myself.
so my employer offers me this "reduced" supposedly "superior" HMO package, and I pay out the ass every month to keep the insurance alive. like fromm @ 6 said, $1400 a month. I probably pay about $650 actually plus another $100 for Aflac add-ons.
then when my kid gets sick or needs a dental checkup or busts his arm on his skateboard, I go in, flash my card, and have them take care of the problem.
when I get a bill I send them to Aflac. Aflac usually covers the difference but whatever Aflac can't cover? f*k em. I don't pay it. I make damn good money for my needs, and I pay all my bills in cash & money orders. when I get to the point where I can buy a house, the housing market's going to have exploded anyway. I buy my cars used with cash. I don't *NEED* good credit, and I think thats the myth that banks use to keep us good little citizens.
naw.
I probably have absolute shit medical credit. I know my regular credit is shit. and I don't care. I seriously don't care. those bankers keeping my credit score have worse global credit than I do anyway, or else our dollar wouldn't be dropping.
and I'm far from the only person who feels this way. look at the article two or three posts down. people are skipping on their credit card debts in record numbers. there can't be that many "good" people out there who desperately want to pay their bills but can't. I talk to people about this all the time. f*k a fat soft-handed bastard with no army or police agency or group of thugs at their disposal, demanding payment from me. what are they going to do?
send me a letter? I'll pitch it.
outsource a Hindu in some overseas call center to try and trick me into admitting my name over the phone so they can enact garnishment? hahaha, good luck with that.
send a handwritten subpoena to my house and sue me? cute. thats only about 10 times more expensive than the original debt.
nope. I pay the bills I think are reasonable to pay. and I pay out the ass for medical insurance. any other bills I get from my HMO or some affiliate of theirs goes straight in the trash. and yet - I have a contract they offered me to provide basic medical care for a basic monthly premium, so as long as I have that card they have to provide me with basic service, then hope to collect more gravy later. I don't feed fat greedy bastards more gravy. I don't dance that dance. I have shit credit, and I'm proud of it.
and if my son ever gets a debilitating condition, and the HMO refuses to see me because I pay $600 a month for no service, but neglected to pay an extra $40 or something when I did go in, so now I'm a credit risk? I'm going to sue for attempted manslaughter.
you have to flex on these fat pigs. take your country back from the bankers, people. the worst they can do is threaten us or "frown" on our behavior. they're weak.
/rant.
So, what do you think will happen once the hospital finds out your “medical credit score” doesn’t measure up?
you will get the same compassion you get from the hypocracy given from ALL reichwing conservative evangelists
christians. they will kick your ass out if you don't pledge to suck jesus their way.The U.S. healthcare system likely is the cause of most stress related illnesses.
What a phucking nightmare.
Glad I live in Canuckistan.
Sept 11 will now have a different meaning to me. I started my medical odyssey starting with ER visits, consults, CT scans and more consults. Thankfully I do not have issues with my health insurance BUT with the billing practices of the providers.
On my second ER visit, they started hitting me up for the $100 copay IN THE ER at the bedside. When I refused to pay it stating that it will be waived when I was admitted. How do I know this? I am an RN with 30 years of experience, 11 of those years working at various positions at health insurance positions AND I never denied anyone services. Those weighty decisions were punted to the doctors.
I was admitted, had a ruff and rocky hospital stay. On the second day things went bad and nearly was transfered to the ICU. THAT was the moment that the hospital business office dropped a letter off at my bedside demanding $723.00 for the outstanding deductible that was quoted to them the day they called the insurance. This quote was made without any consideration to the thousands of dollars of tests and consults that preceded my admission. Again the hospital business office demanded that I pay them the $723.00 the afternoon before my discharge, calling my hospital room, waking me up no less, stating that they expect the money before I left that day.
I complained to the nursing staff and was told they are required to wheel patients to the business office before they can be discharged.
Throughout this demand of payment, I told them they had a PPO contract, that it was against their contract to demand payment until a claim had been processed. AND when that claim was processed, the deductible and out of pocket max's had been met AND I did NOT owe them the deductible.
Just yesterday I received one of those "pay up or go to collections" and we will ruin your credit rating letter for $29.00 which I paid a month ago. Now becomes the next part of this odyssey..... proving that I paid them. THIS time I have copies of all the checks, and bank processing and will start calling tomorrow. With surgery in 2001, I was sent to collections for a bill I HAD paid and could prove that I did but still cannot resolve it without paying the $75 again or obtain legal assistance.
There is one more party in the FOR PROFIT health care system, the providers and their money hungry billing offices who bill incorrectly, cannot post payments, cannot correct their accounts and ruin you credit rating TOO.
...next thing you know, they'll use your credit score to determine if you belong on teh "no fly" list.
...wait...@#$@#$$!!!
What you have mutant tuberculosis?
Here's a shiny new penny kid, now run along!
What it is, is the Republican world in the Sunlight. the Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Who do you think goes to $2,000.00 plate Republican dinners? It is not the street people.
damn right stupid.
JerryM @ 3:
It is a very big joke...
roxnev @ 21:
I dont know, the Reich Wing are rather fond of 'street' people of a certain kind, ie sex for money types.
americanconsumers of health care also need toeducate themselves on the for proift healthcare systems that have been increasing in number.
The most notable for profit system was Columbia Health Care (which had a "Certain Doctor Politician" as a board member) which was a merger with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).
A DOL wage survey of for Profit institutions and non profit institutions noted the following.
Findings in Private Hospitals
In data extracted from the July 2003 National Compensation Survey, the average hourly rate for all workers in profit hospitals, $19.26, was found to be lower than the average hourly rate for all workers in nonprofit hospitals, $20.16.
Full-time workers in for-profit hospitals had a lower average hourly rate than their not-for-profit counterparts, but part-time workers in profit and nonprofit hospitals had nearly identical average hourly rates. Full-time workers in profit hospitals, at $19.21, averaged nearly a dollar per hour less than full-time workers in nonprofit hospitals, at $20.20. But the average hourly rates for part-time workers in the two types of hospitals were very similar, as profit hospitals averaged $19.68, and nonprofit hospitals averaged $19.95.9 (See chart 3.)
The lower average wage rate in profit hospitals may be due to the fact that the profit hospitals were smaller than the hospitals classified as nonprofit.10 Of the 252 private for-profit hospitals studied, only 34 (13 percent) employed more than 2,500 workers. But of the 795 private nonprofit hospitals studied, 220 (28 percent) had more than 2,500 workers.
So ... we have for profit Public traded insurance companies on one side, a growing number of for profit public traded health care companies on the other... ( ie Carlyle Group investing in health care to exploit the advantages of the baby boomers declining years and their medicare billing)
and in the middle? folks trying to make a living in health care , to do what they were trainied to do , to make a reasonable wage, while saving lives...
( ir. the California Nurses Association generating public support for a 17 year old liver transplant candidate...)
Other facets of the healthcare game are the malpractice attorneys, the malpractice insurance, and the physician associations that do not support reciprocal sharing of information to prevent bad doctors from practicing bad
medicine.
Throw into it the education of a nation to perform prevetative health care checks, education on how to have safe sex, and other first person interactive activities, and the importance of regular checkups and immunizations, then you realize your are dealing with the three wings of the republican party.
The corporatists,
The theocrats
and those uninformed to believe them
Methinks that quality of health care is already greatly dependent on ability to pay. My friend got thrown off her horse--five broken ribs, broken clavicle, pneumothorax, and more. She was helicoptered to a major regional hospital, carrying no ID and covered in dirt. The assumption was made that she had no insurance. Possibly she was asked and answered wrong due to her pain and shock. She got necessary care, but for three days she was in the hospital, we kept thinking there was something wrong with the care she got. Doctors seemed to be contradicting each other, backing away from suggested treatments. I said, "Do they think that you are uninsured?" She asked about the pneumothorax at one point, and the doctor seemed to deny it had ever been an issue. "So why are you in the pulminary wing?" I asked her. In the end, the gave her a sling and morphine for a couple of days, and then sent her home. Sure enough, when the bills rolled out, it was clear that the hospital hadn't known she was covered. It wouldn't surpise me at all if credit scores are already taken into account when decisions about care are made.
Herby @ 13:
I hope this motivates you to help do some thing about the system, and that your situation gets better.
ron @ 8:
So your country is F'ed up so you mooch of another one ? .......
The U.S. "Health Care" System-Industry is the most successful modern day robber baron scam ever perpetrated on humanity.
From a story in the Wall Street Journal about out-of-control hospital costs. . . . the man who is the focus of the story was charged $791 for stockings designed to improve blood circulation that are sold on the Internet for $12, and charged up to $6,675 a night for an oxygen mask to help him breathe while sleeping (rentable from outside medical supply at $250).
"I do not deny that our charges look insane," says Dr. Pont, CPMC's chief medical officer. But all hospitals operate the same way, he says. "It's the reality of the industry."
Jackie O @ 26:
Every where I've lived it's about being in need and a country you help support, takes care of you, end of discussion.
And yes, credit scores are checked in the US.
moondancer @ 12:
You don't have to change this too much to see where this country is realy headed, as if we all here didn't know this already....
"Do you want a Government whose primary obligation is the profit margins of major corporations, not in the safety, welfare, peace and prosperity of the majority of it's citizenry?"
Sucks to be us...
Herby @ 14:
Exactly! And when the great majority of Americans finally realize this one of two things will happen:
Legislators in fear for their cushy jobs will nationalize healthcare...
Or....
The Second American Civil War will start..complete with guns and everything.
I believe the first option will be taken but...
The second is not out of the question given the utter stupidity of the oligarchy and it's sockpuppets.
Isn't Captalism just the most wonderful economic system ever devised? No need to send people to the poor house when paupers' graves can hold so many more and require very little maintenance. All you need is money and you can get everything you need here in America be it health care, a Hummer, Lear Jet or any other luxury you can imagine!
In the words of Ebenezer Scrooge:
ARE THERE NO POOR HOUSES?
-GSD
JerryM @ 27:
My US passport was issued in 2004, US Passports with "trackable" chips were issued starting in 2006. As long as I'm not banned from leaving the US for medical care, I will exercise my right and "mooch" my homeland in EU, not because I can, but because it's my right, I'm welcome there, it's free, socialized and, most of all, humane, without any FICO med score to determine if one's worthy of living and getting cured.
fwacbar @ 30:
Pity is the last thing I have for americons, you brought this on yourself and now do pretty much nothing about it.
Just because one cabal is living the americon dream, you should all be proud of them, it's all about #1 and fuck everyone else, that is the dream set up and they are living it, caring about others isn't an americon value, at all.
Well this is the out come, enjoy. Just stay there and deal with it, don't move around the world aad export your ideals and attitudes I'd think is best now.
burnt @ 15:
Burnt, I tip my hat to you! A GREAT post and my sincerest compliments. I pretty much live the same way....except I can't get health insurance at all due to a PRIOR history.
Thanks for the post!
ron @ 34:
Then the sooner the US people (or ones that choose that country) are banned from leaving at all, the better.
As the US tells the world, your with us or against us. You've made your choice, burden your chosen country, opposed to taking advantage of another one.
so when they say COVERAGE>>>> SAY NO
when they say CARE say YES
Doctors frequently decide on treatment based on socioeconomic status... unless outrageous fees are involved..... then it's MONEY MONEY MONEY
I'll second that!
Absolutely great post!
I would add, the big secret is people don't live any less this way. Sure, one has fewer things, but one also has a considerably higher degree of freedom.
Over the last few years, we've also transitioned to buying local where we can. We do buy less, because of price, however, we also know more of those dollars go to people locally, and that matters enough to be worth the hassle.
I think the coverage insurance companies have in mind is dirt. As in once we've spent X dollars, plant them six feet under.
Time to go back to witch doctors.
So, what do you think will happen once the hospital finds out your “medical credit score” doesn’t measure up?
Same thing that'll happen when the insurance company finds out you have a genetic predisposition for some illness.
So now there is an incentive to eat right and live healthy whats the problem?
One want to keep there credit score up so they make the right moves so whats the problem with this?
Medicare for all is 3 words only a congressman from Cleveland has the courage to say
The US healthcare system is systematically robbing people of everything. The hospitals, the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry are operating like street gangs with the law in their pocket.
Your money
orand your life!Just ask the family of Nataline Sarkisyan.
John @ 43:
Did you get coal in your stocking today?
duncanidho @ 25:
That .. right there .. is the crux of the problem ..
"American consumers of health care .."
We are not CONSUMERS of health care.
We are CITIZENS of a nation supposedly run BY the people and FOR the people.
If "we" were not paying for Wars Past Present & Future and Tax Cuts for the Wealthy and Subsidies for the Corporations and .. and .. and ..
Doctors & Dentists & Nurses &c could be paid fair salaries just to do their jobs.
And anyone -- ANYONE -- who had an illness, broken bone, etc, could just show up and get treatment.
The civilized nations have this kind of health care ..
And the result is a less expensive more efficient health care system ..
In my view Health Care is a Public Health issue .. NOT an individual health issue.
Like education, the nation as a whole has a vested interest in the health of the individuals within it -- if any of us is ill we all suffer.
Of course this kicks out one of the cornerstones of capitalism -- that each of us is on our own (unless we inherited wealth, of course) ..
When we have indigent homeless people contracting untreatable forms of tuberculosis, it is a threat to everyone's health.
When children of the impoverished don't get the health care they need the whole nation loses -- not just the unfortunate child.
Universal Health Care means just that.
Mandated Health Care is NOT Universal Health Care. It is for-profit Health Care.
As long as there is profit in health care, it is not Universal Health Care.
Herby @ 13:
My brother-in-law has diabetes. Last doctor visit he had cost him nothing out of his pocket. Man socialism sucks.
John @ 43:
Yep, and if you follow all the laws, you don't need police. And if you drive sensible there is no way you will ever be in a car accident. And if you purchase tornado insurance, there is no way you will ever have a tornado. And hey, while you are at it, if you practice safety at home, you have no need for fire departments either! What a eutopian world!
I'm afriad you CAN'T sue an HMO, the last time I looked... another "benefit" given up by our Congress... that is way they are so arrogant.
The funny thing about creditors and debt agencies, like credit card companies for example, is that they are asking for money back that it wasn't theirs to begin with. For $1 they give away, a lot of these banks can literally make $9 out of thin air, literally. They simply expect the chumps to pay back those $9 which they never had to begin with. Ain't paper money grand?
No other commodity works that way, so it is no wonder why Jesus got only pissed out enough to start kick asses and taking names only once: against the bankers in the temple.
It should put it in perspective for most bankers to realize they are in the only profession shitty enough to drive the son of god, the prince of peace, to blow up a gasket and start to get postal on their asses. I mean, that Jesus feller had more regards for prostitutes...
Beau @ 7:
That IS what happens.
Well, duh! Collecting our premiums is all these insurance companies care about. They're its lifeline. And the actual providing of health care in exchange is a huge expense it would rather do without. When oh when are we going to get it through our heads that a profit model for health care has got to be one of the dumbest ideas around!
Linda @ 53:
I don't think it is not just a dumb idea, the concept of "for profit" health care shows that there is a clear lack of compassion among a significant sector of the population in the US of A. And it is funny how their main defenders are the GOP-bots who at the same time love to proclaim through the other side of their mouth how this is a "Christian" nation. Talk about having your cake and eating it too...
Just as many Conservatives believe in the adage "Nuke 'em all and let God sort 'em out" (which belief they imagine makes them more loyal to the nation's military) in matters of foreign policy and war, so in this matter many Repubs will proudly express that it is just too bad these people must just die, but if on the off chance that in any of their cases getting sick while poor wasn't all their own fault because of lack of morals, lack of self-reliance, then God will give them their reward in Heaven, and that will just have to be good enough. (Hindu and Buddhist Conservatives might add bad karma from a past life to that list, and chalk it up to 'maybe the next life will go better', but they would be in the minority by far.)
How can CheneyInc and BushCo lose?
When people die, either through being sent to an illegal war, being bankrupted and/or murdered by returning vets with PTSD and no options, dying for lack of medical care, dying for lack of emergency evacuation, dying through poisoned food, crime--or even terrorism . . . just think what would happen if insulin suddenly became hard to find, or if the supply was contaminated!
. . . and that's a GOOD THING for CheneyInc.
See, people, the Grand Plan is to depopulate the earth, to get it down to about 1 billion elites, or even fewer. Maybe 144,000. The how doesn't matter at all. In fact, I believe there's even an inverse ratio of concern: the higher the casualties, the less anyone cares.
Massive depopulation is the quickest, most efficient, simplest way to halt global warming and resource depletion.
Remember, there's YEARS worth of food, water, and other survival supplies buried in caves that are maintained with your tax dollars. Except that you won't be the ones surviving on it.
And anyone who thinks the Brave New World can't get along without your specialized IT skills or your artisan bread or or your education degree or your skilled advocacy or your guitar licks, well . . . just think of all the doctors, lawyers, professors, musicians and craftsmen who went to the gas chambers. You are so replaceable.
(And no doubt there was a Jew living in Germany who said, "Nonsense, Hannah, the Reich cannot do without ------! We're too valuable! Of course we're not going to emigrate!")
Vanna @ 56:
I think the Georgia Guidestones say 500,000 is the target population level. Elites plus the number of slaves they feel they can keep control of, plus a number of Sheriff of Nottingham types who would do the dirty work involved in the controlling these neo-serfs on behalf of the Elite neo-Junkers. Welcome to the New World Order...if you don't die at the hands of these evil people, which would be a statistical stretch if you're not an Elite.
you will get the same compassion you get from the hypocracy given from ALL reichwing conservative evangelists christians. they will kick your ass out if you don’t pledge to suck jesus their way.
Tom @ 57:
100%
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