Metropolitan Atlanta Hospital Accountability Project

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: WellStar Health System has sent 14,000 letters to patients saying it may terminate its relationship with Aetna insurance company.

While the letters have alarmed patients who worry they’ll have to switch hospitals or insurance companies, an Atlanta health consultant said the letters could simply be a negotiating tactic and that people probably have little to worry about.

Michael Rovinsky of Integrity Consulting Group said such letters have become a commonplace tactic during hardball negotiations between insurers and hospitals, used by both sides. One side, for instance, might use the letter to alarm patients, who then could call and apply pressure to the other side to settle the negotiations, he said.

“It’s using patients as a pawn for negotiations,” said Rovinsky, a healthcare consultant for some 25 years.

Read the rest of the article here.

ATLANTA — More than three million people are living without health insurance in Georgia. One woman without insurance, 52-year-old Essie Powell – gave Channel 2 a vivid look into their world – saying that if she has to battle cancer, she wants to do it with dignity. But without health insurance, she feels her dignity is denied. Read the rest of this entry →

New York, NY, May 11, 2009—Women are more likely than men to feel the pinch of rising health costs and eroding health benefits, with about half (52%) of working-age women reporting problems accessing needed care because of costs, compared to 39 percent of men, a new Commonwealth Fund study finds. Women who are insured but have inadequate coverage are especially vulnerable: 69 percent of underinsured women have problems accessing care because of costs, compared to half (49%) of underinsured men. Read the rest of this entry →

From ABC News: …The country’s health care leaders pledged Monday to reduce the annual growth of health spending by 1.5 percentage points — which they say will save $2 trillion in 10 years — some health policy experts say that it is unlikely that Americans will see any of this money returning to their own pocketbooks, despite the crippling health care costs that some face. Read the rest of this entry →

From the Atlanta Business Journal:

Gov. Sonny Perdue signed legislation Tuesday aimed at raising money for trauma care in Georgia while reducing the number of crash victims who end up in hospital emergency rooms.

The bill, part of the governor’s legislative agenda this year, will slap “super speeders” with an additional $200 fine for driving more than 85 miles an hour on major highways and 75 mph or faster on a two-lane road. The measure also will increase driver’s license reinstatement fees for motorists with multiple license suspensions. Read the rest of this entry →

In an article published April 19, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Andy Miller examined the growing trend of hospitals to use credit reports to gauge which self-pay patients can afford their hospital visits, and which cannot.

From the article:

• Equifax executive Arvind Krishnaswami claims hospitals collect an average of 10 cents on a dollar, writing the rest of the amount off as bad debt;
• Because of that, Krishnaswami formed Roswell, GA-based Medlytix in 2006;
• These services are used to identify patients who qualify for charity or free care, those eligible for discounts and those who should pay the whole bill;
• But many criticize the use of credit scores to analyze patients’ finances at hospitals, who have a “reputation as aggressive bill collectors while their tax-exempt status gets heightened scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.”

Read the article here.

While this didn’t happen in the metro Atlanta area, it is still something to note. The Chicago Tribune reported today that “a higher percentage of the poor and uninsured — one in three — are being redirected from the University of Chicago Medical Center to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center than the typical rate of admission of such patients to hospitals in Illinois. Read the rest of this entry →

here’s a growing class of Americans known as the “underinsured.” These are people who have health insurance, but whose medical bills make up more than 10 percent of their annual income.

Host Jacki Lyden gets the latest estimate from health economist Cathy Schoen, a senior vice president of the Commonwealth Fund. Listen to the NPR Web cast here.

Some people can’t buy health insurance because they have a pre-existing medical condition. But for most of the nation’s 47 million uninsured, cost is the big obstacle — especially if they don’t work for a company that pays part of the premium. Hear the broadcast here.

And even if they could find an affordable health plan, many are not used to building that cost into their monthly budget. Potential sticker shock is emerging as a key issue in the nation’s debate over whether everybody should be covered. Read the rest of this entry →

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Ask most Americans how much it costs to visit a doctor and they probably do not know. Ask doctors what their fees are and they’re not likely to know that either. Read the rest of this entry →