Los Angeles County is considering a new medical debt ordinance that would ensure that people with outstanding medical bills receive financial assistance while also requiring hospitals in the county’s unincorporated areas to be transparent about collecting their debts.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the ordinance for a second time in the coming weeks. It would also require hospitals to give the county at least one month’s notice before beginning the collection process.
The report to the county would include basic information about the patient (without disclosing the diagnosis), the original amount the person owes the hospital and when the debt became due, and a listing of payments made by the patient or insurance company.
Public health officials said the new rules would help low-income families drowning in medical bills, since nearly half of people with outstanding medical bills “live below 200 percent of the federal poverty level,” said Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
“Medical debt remains a critical public health problem in Los Angeles County, affecting approximately one in 10 adults,” Ferrer said.
Supporters of the measure said the burden of medical bills would place a heavy burden on working families.
“One volunteer’s mother was a single parent working 80 hours a week to care for four teenagers,” said Kira Sano, a youth activist with the American Cancer Society. “She had kept her diagnosis of multiple melanoma a secret from her children for years to protect them. She died a few weeks after being admitted to the hospital.”
But critics fear that implementation costs could vary from hospital to hospital and that reporting data for individual patients would require more than just paperwork.
“In many cases, hospital medical reporting systems would need to be revamped,” said George Green of the Hospital Association of Southern California. “For hospitals that are already underfunded, understaffed and overburdened, this could mean additional resources every time a patient is added to the collection.”
But Dr. Anish Mahajan of the Ministry of Health argued that hospitals should already have the information required for the mandatory reports.
“It’s data they already use for billing,” Mahajan said. “It’s data they already use for collections, and we’re just asking that a copy of that be sent to us as well.”
The order would require several hospitals in unincorporated areas to adjust their debt collection policies, but local cities could also choose to adopt the new rules.
Hospitals that violate the order could be fined up to $5,000 and may face additional fines if they fail to comply.
Collecting medal debt data is part of a $5 million pilot program approved this year as the county aims to buy up and pay off $500 million in low-income debt, County Executive Janice Hahn’s office said.
A final vote on the debt reporting regulation is expected to take place in September. If passed, hospitals would have six months before they have to report the data.
