Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991 TAG: 9103200413
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He was indignant.
A friend had been in Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem, and had about $300 in bills outstanding. Nothing unusual there.
The hospital eventually sent the friend an application for a Care-Charge credit card.
Care-Charge charges its customers 21 percent interest.
He fumed that the rate would make a loan shark blush. A standard credit card charges 15 percent or 16 percent interest. A bank loan costs less than that, 12 percent or 13 percent or less.
It's a good point. For 21 percent, I ought to be able to check in at midday, have a heart transplant, have my boils lanced, be rid of my kidney stones and get a massage before going home.
For 21 percent, why should a patient be subjected to antiquated, backwater health care treatment - things like recuperation and therapy, pain and no beer.
The Lewis-Gale patient was victimized. It is fashionable to be a victim, and a good bargaining position, too.
So what does the hospital have to say for itself, taking advantage of once-sick people this way? How does Lewis-Gale explain its role of Goliath gouging David, of putting the masses into medicine's debt and then leading them to impoverishment?
Who forgot to tell Lewis-Gale that feudalism is dead?
"Care-Charge," says Dave Middag, in the hospital's marketing department, "is really the last, last option we would encourage you to take. It is expensive at 21 percent."
Lewis-Gale Hospital discharges about 1,000 patients monthly, and treats several thousand more as outpatients, Middag says. Of those, 10 to 15 people end up with Care-Charge applications.
Those are the hard-core cases. Their insurance companies won't pay the hospital's charges. They've talked with the hospital's business office about payment plans to settle the balance. About bank loans. About credit cards. About asking friends or family to help.
Only after it is apparent the patient cannot, or will not, pay the bill does the hospital send out a Care-Charge application. The next step is a collection agency, says Middag, and that amounts to a big loss for the hospital and an indignity for everyone.
"People hate to pay for health care. It's the last thing people want to pay for. It's not something tangible they can hold," Middag says.
Once Care-Charge - which isn't affiliated with Lewis-Gale - accepts a patient's account and issues the credit card, it instantly pays the hospital the bulk of the outstanding debt. Lewis-Gale resigns itself to never collecting the full bill. And the patient's headache continues.
"This Care-Charge is not routine," Middag says. "By then, we've given up hope of arranging something face-to-face with the patient."
The angry caller already has written his senator about this abomination. He's bad-mouthing Lewis-Gale all over town. He's angry at such a high interest rate.
His friend ought to just pay the bill.
The hospital has a right to its money.
by CNB