PROVIDENCE – The R.I. House of Representatives yesterday approved legislation sponsored by state Rep. Peter L. Lewiss, D-Westerly, that would require health insurance companies to reimburse hospitals for uncollected patient co-payments or deductibles.
The requirement would only apply after the hospital has been unable to collect the co-pay or deductible from an insured patient after at least four months of trying. The insurer would pay the hospital and then pursue reimbursement from its subscriber.
Currently, hospitals are solely responsible for collecting copayments and deductibles, and industry leaders and individual hospitals in the state say bad debt – which includes uncollected payments like those – is putting a severe strain on their finances.
Hospitals have told him “the bad debt is an unintended consequence of the rise in co-pay and deductible amounts,” Lewiss said in a statement, noting that taxpayers ultimately foot the bill when patients don’t pay their share.
“Uncompensated care to hospitals this year is estimated to cost the state of Rhode Island approximately $100 million,” he said. “We need to rein in some of these unnecessary costs and inefficiencies and we need to be certain our hospitals stay financially afloat.”
The bill now goes to the state Senate for consideration.
For information about the R.I. General Assembly, including the House and Senate daily calendars and listings of measures introduced each day, visit rilin.state.ri.us.
It is perhaps unfortunate, but absolutely necessary that insurers be made accountable for increased administrative burden and credit risk they transfer to providers in their high co-pay and deductible products. Hospitals and other providers didn’t ask for these changes and shouldn’t bear these costs.