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St. Louis hospitals give uninsured discounts
St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare, a 13-hospital system that cares for about 30 percent of the hospital patients in the metro area, has agreed to give a 25 percent discount to all hospital patients without insurance. Uninsured patients who were treated at a BJC hospital since Jan. 1, 1999, and paid some or all of the cost, may be eligible for a partial refund or bill reduction. The discounts also will apply to uninsured patients getting treatment until at least 2012.
Patients in families earning less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $82,600 for a family of four, will continue to get additional charity care discounts. Those at less than 200 percent of the poverty level, or about $41,300 for a family of four, will get free care. Those discounts were put into place in 2005, the year after the lawsuit was filed.
The settlement, if approved by a judge, will become effective in early September. The decision settles a class-action suit filed in 2004, one of several on behalf of patients complaining that their bills were two to three times as high as those for patients with insurance. Other area hospitals avoided getting caught up in the suit by voluntarily discounting prices aggressively to the uninsured, but BJC's discounts didn't satisfy the plaintiffs.
To learn more about the case:
- read this St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece
Related Articles:
SC court says uninsured not guaranteed discounts. Report
California opens hospital discount listing site. Report
SC court examines discounts for uninsured. Report
MN hospitals extend uninsured discounts. Report
MN health systems pay back uninsured patients. Report
Legacy Health settles improper billing suit. Report
Catholic Healthcare West uninsureds get 35 percent refund. Report
Comments
By Narayanachar Murali | Posted 5:36pm | March 19, 2008
That is not anything to gloat about.
I wish the hospital would charge 25% less than the lowest contracted rate (example Medicaid) to the really deserving. Before you start praising these hospitals for their magnanimity, look at the numbers for a procedure like colonoscopy.
Hospital facility charge $350-1500
ASC facility fee: $250-750
Office based endoscopy unit facility fee: $110-350.
( the lower number is the Medicare rate paid as facility fee. Medicaid pays NO facility fee for office-based procedures!).
By Howard S. | Posted 10:15am | March 20, 2008
This is not anywhere near the solution to medical costs. The answer is viable, affordable and comprehensive health insurance for all.
Can this country afford such universal health coverage? The question should be, can the country NOT afford universal health insurance?
The approach can be a mixture of private and government-funded insurance, or all government. Something needs to be done, however.
Hillary Clinton is the only serious candidate at this stage who has any kind of meaningful proposal for such coverage on the table. (disclaimer: I did not vote for Bill Clinton either time he ran).
Obama's plan is just a rehash of various state programs for the low-income poor and uninsured. It does nothing to address the needs of the working middle class.
McCain's plan is pretty much a rehash of the latest proposals from the commercial insurers which are designed to protect the mega-profits of the private insurers. Its a step up from the Bush administration's current health plan, known in the industry as the 'Don't Get Sick' health plan, but it will just direct billions of taxpayer dollars from healthcare into the cash bonuses of the private health insurers' executives.
We are at a crucial time in our history, where we will either move forward on Healthcare insurance reform, or just go forward with sound-bites and band-aid approaches such as the one in this news article.
Howard
howard08817@aol.com
By Rajat | Posted 12:49pm | June 1, 2008
This will probably increase BJC hospital's patient share in the metro upto about 37 %
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