January 31, 2008
Eliminating the disparity in medical prices
Ohio Health Policy Review posted yesterday about a Plain Dealer story that reports attorney general Marc Dann wants the state's poor and uninsured to pay the same price for medical care as those with insurance.
From the PD:
[Marc Dann] is concerned about uninsured patients paying high prices for medical procedures because they don't get hefty discounts that insurance companies negotiate.
This is part of the ongoing discussion regarding how 'charity care' is defined.
Again from the PD:
Hospitals throughout Ohio and across the nation define and report charity care differently. Dann and the Ohio Hospital Association said they plan to work together to come up with an Ohio standard.
We blogged about this issue before quoting a Reuters story that said uninsured patients pay 2.5 times more than those with health insurance.