Effort seeks ‘best practices’ for billing at hospitals

As chair of Atty. Gen. Phill Kline’s hospital billing and collection practices task force, I was disappointed to read your editorial referring to the effort as a “high-profile shakedown” of every not-for-profit hospital in Kansas. Quite the contrary is true.

When I referred to all nonprofit hospitals being included, it was not for the purpose of an investigation of all hospitals but seeking an agreed-upon “best practices” set of rules. The concept of a best practices set of rules was made known to the Kansas Hospital Assn., which has been very cooperative with the attorney general.

The purpose of the task force is not to disparage the good work of not-for-profit hospitals in Kansas but to work to have a uniform set of rules that will assist both patients and the hospitals in finding a studied approach to medical debt and to lessen present and future litigation. It also was for this reason that specific hospitals were not named. We are appreciative of the work of not-for-profit hospitals that serve the public welfare with charity and good medical care.

The Kaiser Commission released a study showing that more than 58 million adults in this country are at a high risk of incurring medical bills they may not be able to afford. Having medical debt was associated with a substantial decrease in their access to health care.

A survey by The Access Project found data that health care providers could do a better job of assisting low-income people to identify sources of financial help through public coverage programs, hospital discounts and charity care. Nearly four in 10 respondents with medical debt said they were never offered financial assistance by providers.

We have found that some of the same concerns pointed out in the Kaiser and Access surveys exist in Kansas.

It is our hope that the work of the task force will create a positive outcome for those providing medical care and for those who incur debt as a result of the need for medical treatment.