Health care billing abuses "stranger than fiction"

[marmar]

Health care billing abuses "stranger than fiction"

By ALEX PARKER / Staff Writer
Chi-Town Daily News

May 22, 2009


Truth, sometimes, is stranger than fiction, said Attorney General Lisa Madigan last night, as she introduced the documentary "Do No Harm," which examines unfair hospital billing practices at a non-profit hospital in Georgia.

"I think you'll find the events recorded in this film almost sound like a plot from a bestseller by John Grisham," she said.

The film, directed by first-time Chicago filmmaker Rebecca Schanberg, debuted at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It follows physician John Bagnato and accountant Charles Rehberg, who went head-to-head with an Albany, Ga., hospital named Phoebe Putney.

Bagnato and Rehberg endured threats and prosecution while showing the hospital overcharged poor patients with tactics such as aggressive collection practices. Some of those patients ended up filing bankruptcy.

"In the absence of laws to protect health care consumers from overly aggressive billing and collection practices, many Illinois hospitals employed strategies similar to those at Phoebe Putney," said Madigan, a leader in the state's efforts to curb expensive billing practices.

Several Chicago hospital systems, including Resurrection Health Care and Advocate Health Care, were forced to settle overcharging disputes earlier this year. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/in-the-news/2009/may/health-care-billing-abuses-stranger-than-fiction-1.html

[snowdays]

1. good for the Cal nureses--who are pushing for single payer. IS the WH

Listening? NO