Nonprofit hospitals despicable practices of overcharging patients with no insurance and then using aggressive tactics to collect payments are being discouraged by new rules recently adopted by the Obama Administration. Under the new rules, patients with no insurance who are eligible for financial assistance can not be charged more than “the amounts generally billed” to people who have insurance through a government program or a private carrier. Additionally, hospitals must try to determine whether a patient is eligible for assistance before they start to use aggressive tactics to collect payment.
Read more in the New York Times