Thirty-one percent of patient bad debt should be classified as charity

Connance, Inc. and PARO Decision Support, LLC have determined that nearly 31 percent of all patient bad debt in the United States is misclassified, and actually meets the guidelines for charity eligibility. The study looked at the charity practices of 148 hospitals in 2008, and also determined that "differences in regional economics" have a large impact on charity eligibility. 

Connance chief development officer David Franklin feels that such a trend "erodes patient and community goodwill." He said that patients who are able to pay should be "similarly identified for effective follow up," which would lead to, among other things, "more patient-friendly collection activity." 

Still, other help is needed in order to fully resolve this issue. Poorer patients, those who live in poverty, sometimes simply do not want to apply for charity care because they don't understand what they're getting themselves into--from the documentation to the process. 

To learn more:
- here's the Healthcare Finance News article [1]

Related Article:
Case Study: Wichita hospital screens patients for government benefit eligibility [2]
Helping to qualify the uninsured [3]
Hospitals auctioning off patient debt online [4]
Bad housing market could mean more bad debt in healthcare [5]