Maryland Advocates Call for Health Care Reform

The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition is calling on the legislature to reform health care so that low income patients receive the care they deserve. As MCRC points out, too many Marylanders are being sent to debt collection over hospital bills — even when they qualify for free care.

Here’s more from an MCRC email:

Our healthcare system in Maryland needs a dramatic overhaul. Despite the fact that Maryland’s nonprofit hospitals are paid by the state to provide free medical care to low-income patients, a recent Health Service Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) study found that hospitals sent 60% of patients who were eligible for free care to debt collection. In other words, hospitals failed low-income patients 60% of the time.

Not only that, but hospitals collected $61 million dollars from low-income patients that were supposed to receive free care. We are in the midst of a global health pandemic and despite increases in vaccines, widespread racial disparities in access to vaccines as well as in exposure to the virus remain. Thousands of Marylanders have lost jobs, lost income, or closed their businesses over the past year. Many are still waiting for their unemployment checks from the state.

We cannot afford to wait another session to study the issue. We need to act now. That’s why HB565 The Medical Debt Protection Act is so important. It will:

• Require that patients are screened to see if they are eligible for free or reduced-cost care…