There is a new trend going on in Health Care, what’s your credit score? Hospitals are starting to check credit reports to see whether a patient will pay their medical bills and which ones just need to be written off. There are concerns about whether a patient will get the quality of health care they need if their credit report has bumps and bruises on it. Is there such a thing as credit score discrimination?
Some advocates are concerned that this process could lead to some patient not getting the health care they need. Hospitals are denying this. But we have to remember Hospitals are a business too. Advocates are also concerned this might force some patients to get high interest rate credit lines to pay for medical services. This currently goes on in the Dentistry industry. In order to finance a crown, you pay high interest on the money borrowed. Nether less it looks like everybody’s credit score will be pulled if services will be rendered.
Currently some of the big players trying to sell services such as health care risk models. Equifax is one of the key players that has a score that will predict the likelihood that a patient will pay back medical obligations. With the new digital age, and the instant response of the internet, Health care organizations can get your risk in a matter of seconds.
Currently the hospital chains such as Tenet and Fair Isaac’s the developer of the FICO credit score are some of the top supporters of health care analytic s, a company that is putting together bill-collection data from hospitals for predicting patient payment habits.
This is just another example of how the wonderful credit score is so important these days, this 3 digit number is creeping into our health care sector currently.
