high deductible health plans

Hospitals Dealing With More Self-Pay Patients, Uncompensated Care

Driven by patients’ loss of health insurance, coverage gaps in insurance policies, an increase in high-deductible plans, and the post-COVID changes in Medicaid eligibility, hospitals are encountering growing numbers of uninsured and self-pay patients. In response, they are pursuing ways to improve billing and bill collection while seeking upfront payments from patients with questionable or no coverage, employing patient navigators, and using AI technology. Learn more about the recent increase in self-pay and uninsured patients and how hospitals are responding to this challenge from the Modern Healthcare article “How hospitals are tackling the surge of self-pay patients” (subscription required).

High-Deductible Plans Losing Luster Amid Low Unemployment

The competition for employees is leading more businesses to offer more generous health insurance plans in addition to high-deductible plans. As health insurance premiums rose in recent years, more and more companies were offering their employees more high-deductible insurance options to help keep down the cost of premiums. Now, however, with some workers clamoring for more conventional plans and businesses finding themselves in competition for workers at a time of low unemployment, more businesses are offering those conventional plans to their workers. 2020, in fact, will mark the third consecutive year during which the percentage of companies offering only high-deductible [...]