Becker's Hospital Review

16 CFO / FINANCE Ballad, RIP Medical reach deal to erase $278M of patient medical debt By Alia Paavola B allad Health, a 21-hospital network based in Johnson City, Tenn., reached a deal with RIP Medical Debt to wipe out $278 million worth of medical debt owed by its patients, according to a June 15 news release. RIP Medical, a nonprofit organization that forgives unpaid medical bills, will buy the debt owed by 82,000 low-income patients at the health system. Many likely qualified for free care under Ballad Health's policy, but didn't get it, according to the news release. "Nearly everyone who will receive their debt abolishment through this collaboration with RIP Medical Debt qualifies for our updated charity care policy, but for various reasons they either did not qualify at the time or did not take advantage of it in prior years. By re- moving this burden of old debt, we hope to better engage with our patients, so they access care and other services when they need them without the fear of unmanageable expenses," said Anthony Keck, chief population health officer for Ballad Health. RIP Medical said it will erase the $278 million worth of unpaid debt and send out notices of the relief to patients in June. Some of the out- standing bills affected are 10 years old. is is the first time RIP Medical has pur- chased debt directly from a hospital, accord- ing to the news release. RIP Medical said it is looking for more hospital partners to help erase debt. Last year, HHS' Office of Inspector General issued an advisory opinion that allowed RIP Medical to buy the debt directly from health systems and large physician groups. n Colorado to pay hospitals to shut down freestanding ERs By Morgan Haefner C olorado health officials are offering to pay hospitals to close their free- standing emergency rooms, according to a May 24 report from Kaiser Health News. Part of the reasoning behind the incentive is the high cost of care linked to freestanding ERs. A 2019 brief from UnitedHealth Group found freestanding ERs can charge up to 22 times more than physician offices. Colorado is home to 44 freestanding ERs, 34 of which are hospital-owned. While the facilities were pitched as a way to fill gaps in care, a report from the Colorado Health Institute cited by KHN found the freestanding ERs were more often set up in wealthier neighborhoods and competed with other hospitals. Kim Bimestefer, executive director of Colorado's Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told KHN, "We don't want hospitals to have stand-alone ERs, so we are willing to pay to shut them down." The department oversees Colorado's Medicaid program, which has seen higher costs related to benefi- ciaries seeking care for common illnesses at the freestanding facilities. State health officials would prefer the facilities be turned into ones that offer primary care or mental health services. It's part of a hospital transformation plan in the state that requires hospitals to improve quality metrics to receive millions in Medicaid payments, according to the report. n Most hospitals opt for noncompliance fee over disclosing prices By Katie Adams M ost hospitals are still not fully compliant with CMS' price transparency rule, opting to pay the maximum $300 per day noncompliance fee rather than face the potential costs of price disclosure, according to research published June 14 in JAMA Internal Medicine. The rule, which took effect Jan. 1, aims to save Americans money by allow- ing them to price shop for healthcare services. It requires hospitals to post a machine-readable file with the negotiated rates for all items and services and display the prices of 300 shoppable services in a consumer-friendly format. Researchers studied two groups of hospitals: 100 randomly sampled hospi- tals and the 100 hospitals with the highest revenues in 2017. Of the 100 randomly sampled hospitals, 83 percent failed to comply with at least one of the rule's requirements. A little more than 50 percent of the hos- pitals had a cost estimator tool, but they all required patients to input their personal health information to access it. Of the 100 top-grossing hospitals, 75 percent failed to comply with at least one of the rule's requirements, and 86 percent offered a price estimator tool. n

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