BOSTON (AP) — Some hospitals in Massachusetts complain that large health maintenance organizations are late in paying them, and that overloaded computers may be to blame in many cases.
“We have to go fight with the payers to get them to live up to their responsibilities,” an unidentified hospital executive told the Boston Herald.
Hospitals have to fight for every dollar owed to them,” the executive said.
“This is the closest thing we have to a disaster in medicine right now. I worry about whether the payers are going to crash,” said an unidentified executive at a teaching hospital.
“Hospitals feel like they’re holding the bag — they delivered the care, incurred the cost and now they’re left holding the bag,” said James Kirkpatrick, a senior director of the Massachusetts Hospital Association.
He said “tens of millions of dollars, maybe $100 million” owed to hospitals is in HMO accounts.
“We’ve become their bankers,” said a hospital president, who asked not to be identified.
The hospital association supports a bill that would limit the time HMOs have to process claims.
An HMO executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Herald the issue is that hospitals operating on tight budgets are getting tough about payments.
