Letters to the Editor do not reflect the opinions of The Reporter, its publisher or its staff. You can submit your own Letter to the Editor by email to News@ReadTheReporter.com. Please include your phone number and city of residence. The Reporter will publish one letter per person per week.
Dear Editor:
The rising cost of healthcare in America is well-documented, with countless families negatively impacted by the financial strain, often while simultaneously navigating worrisome and heartbreaking illness and injury. Adding to their stress is the uncertainty of not only the physical outcomes, but the ultimate cost of paying for life-saving treatments and medication.
All too often, these costs are unknown and hidden due to unfair billing practices at hospitals. The national trend of consolidation in the healthcare industry has led to hospital systems purchasing private practices, with bills arriving in patient mailboxes with costs charged at the higher hospital rates and “facility fees” for hospitals where no treatment ever took place. Financial hardship befalls families impacted by this behavior in all our communities, whether in our larger cities or rural towns.
Thankfully, Indiana has taken steps to address this by earlier this year passing HB 1004 which restricts “dishonest billing” so that hospitals cannot bill patients for services and procedures provided at a doctor’s office as if the services were provided at the hospital. The intent of this legislation is to lower medical bills for everyone by eliminating unnecessary fees for their medical treatment.
At the federal level, too, steps are being taken by members of Indiana’s congressional delegation to further protect Indiana families from inflated and unnecessary costs, with bills designed to increase price transparency and fair billing practices. Senator Mike Braun and Representative Victoria Spartz both carried legislation to end dishonest billing with support from other members like Representative Jim Baird.
The issue is certainly complicated, but patients and their families should not be burdened with unnecessary costs when the financial stakes are already high, and health and well-being is at risk.
Leaders in the healthcare industry and at all levels of government must collaborate to find reasonable solutions to protect patients, and charge them only for services they receive, and not require them to shoulder the burden of business decisions made by the healthcare industry.
Ryan Allio
Carmel