Wednesday, Sep. 01, 2010

Hospital will run credit checks on ER patients

Soon, hospital workers will check the credit histories of emergency-room patients in Smithfield and Clayton.

Johnston Health leaders agreed last week to run credit checks to gauge patients' ability to pay their medical bill. But even patients with bad credit will get medical treatment in emergencies, they said.

Other hospitals check their patients' credit reports too, said Edward Klein, chief financial officer for Johnston Health. The question hospital leaders debated last week is whether to notify patients when the hospital runs a credit check. The administration is expected to decide.

Hospitals often extend credit to patients who don't pay their bill on the spot. Getting a glimpse of credit histories, including credit-card balances, will give the hospital a sense of patients' financial health, Klein said.

"If someone has the financial ability to pay a hospital bill, I want to use all the means available to go after that," he said.

Hospital board member Sammy Jackson said the hospital needs to figure out how to trim its bad debt, or unpaid patient bills.

The board unanimously approved the move, but some hospital leaders seemed skeptical.

"I understand the reason for the credit check, but what are you going to do with the information?" asked Dr. Craig Carter, vice president of Johnston Health's medical executive committee. "It's not like you keep them from the hospital."

While hospital leaders gave the go-ahead for credit checks, they said no to hiring a firm to drum up new business for the hospital by networking with local employers.

Under the proposal, Johnston Health would have paid WellnessWorks, a national company, $17,000 a month to help market the local hospitals. WellnessWorks would have hired an employee to try to convince local companies to use Johnston Health's services.

"It's like a marketing program, basically," said Chuck Elliott, chief executive of the hospital system. He added that he knew of other hospitals that have had success with the program.

But some board members said they thought the hospital could market itself without hiring an outside firm.

"It seems like we could have our own PR people to go around for cheaper than $17,000 a month," said board member Ricky Young.

Jackson said the program could have been a moneymaker for the hospital. "The administration team is digging up every way they can to find ways to gain revenue," he said.

Last week, hospital leaders agreed to hire another firm that will help Johnston Health sift through the complicated insurance process for patients involved in motor-vehicle crashes. That service is better left up to an outside company, Klein said.

"We don't have the resources or the horsepower to go in and start a program like that," he said.