Fierce Healthcare February 26, 2024
Nick McLaughlin

One of the most powerful components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was the mandate that nonprofit hospitals provide an income-based financial assistance program. But 10 years after the passage of the law, more than half of patients don’t know these programs exist.

This knowledge gap is causing an unnecessary amount of suffering for both patients and hospital revenues—and is one of the reasons medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. I saw this suffering firsthand while working as a hospital debt collector for over a decade. I also saw that most patients in collections would have qualified for financial assistance but either didn’t know about it or didn’t complete an application.

This disconnect...

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Topics: ACA (Affordable Care Act), Health System / Hospital, Insurance, Patient / Consumer, Provider
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