Minnesota Hospital Reviews Billing and Collection Practices Under Agreement

A hospital in Western Minnesota is putting itself through a rigorous review of its billing and debt collection practices in accordance with an agreement announced in April between the Minnesota Hospital Association and the Minnesota Attorney General.

In early April, the Minnesota Hospital Association and Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announced that they had renewed an agreement where hospitals in the state promised not to “charge uninsured patients more than they charge their largest insurance companies for the same service”.  That agreement had been in place since 2005.  A major new component of the agreement this year was the setting of guidelines to establish more fair medical debt collection practices.

In a story run in the West Central Tribune of Willmar, MN, a local hospital is currently making good on that promise by taking a hard look at its own billing and collection practices.

As a result of the review, Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar is developing new billing statements that they hope will “give patients a better understanding of their overall bill and their options for paying it”.  The results of the review were detailed to the hospital’s board of directors on Wednesday.  Rice Memorial is owned by the city of Willmar.

The business manager of the hospital told the board that while they do utilize outside collection agencies to go after past-due bills, the hospital only turns accounts over to collectors when their internal efforts have been exhausted.  According to the hopsital’s charter, reports are required annually on the hospital’s debt collection activities, compliance with billing and collection policies, and charity care practices.  The state-wide agreement with the attorney general served to reinforce the reporting.

The original agreement between Minnesota hospitals and the state AG in 2005 was viewed as a groundbreaking initiative in the evaluation and review process between healthcare organizations and large government entities in the U.S.