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Hospitals Demand Payment Before Care
12 Aug
Summary
- Hospitals increasingly demand prepayments from patients.
- Rising deductibles shift costs to consumers.
- Some patients wait over a year for refunds.
Patients are facing a growing trend of hospitals demanding prepayments before receiving medical services. This practice, often designated as "self-pay," occurs even when patients have insurance. The trend exacerbates the financial burden on individuals, as rising deductibles mean patients are responsible for larger portions of their healthcare costs. Some providers are collecting as much as a quarter of the estimated patient balance upfront, a figure that has increased in recent years.
This shift is driven by insurers raising deductibles to control premium growth, effectively making patients responsible for more. Experts suggest this makes access to care more difficult. While emergency room care is legally protected from upfront payment demands, other services are not. The calculation of these preservice deposit amounts can be opaque, and patients may face lengthy waits for refunds if overpayments occur, with some cases involving waits of over a year.
