Portal Login:
  • Clients
  • Providers
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
    Portal Login:
  • Clients
  • Providers
  • About MCN
  • Careers
  • MCNTalk
  • Contact Us

MCN | Medical Consultants Network

The Power of a Second Look

  • Services
    • Independent Medical Examinations
    • Medical Peer Reviews
    • Bill Review Services
    • Utilization Reviews
  • Expertise
    • Short and Long-Term Disability
    • Workers’ Compensation
    • Auto/PIP/Casualty/Liability
    • Independent Review Organization Services
  • For Clients
  • For Providers
  • Your Exam
    • About Your Exam
    • About Your External Review
    • Contact & Scheduling
  • Schedule Now
  • About MCN
  • MCNTalk
  • Careers
  • Contact Us

MCNTalk
News, Insights & Opinions

Home / MCNTalk / Tag: emergency rooms

Viewing items tagged:

emergency rooms

August 1, 2012

Medical Payment Collection Gone Wild

By Brian L. Grant, MD

Emergency rooms sit of the front lines of the health care payment crisis as they must provide care to all who come though many can’t afford to pay. Photo by Adam Gault / Digital Vision / Getty Images.

Emergency rooms  sit on the front lines of the health care payment crisis. On the one hand, they must provide care to all who come – by law, custom and ethics. On the other hand, the care is expensive and many can’t afford to pay. Many of the uninsured use ER’s as their care sources rather when they lack access to clinics and physicians. Creative companies have found ways to profit and help pay for the care provided. In this case, one such company crossed the line of decency and legality. Our fee for service health care system assumes that personal responsibility and solvency can be relied upon. Is society served by financial triage for essential or urgent medical needs?

One day not too far off, stories such as the one featured in the New York Times article “Medical Debt Collector to Settle Suit for $2.5 Million” will be looked at with the same shame we feel towards the discrimination practiced in our country based upon race and other factors in past decades. We would regard it as abhorrent to deny access to K-12 education for the poor. Why do we believe that different standards ought to apply to access to health care? Why should employers have the burden and responsibility of providing health care for their employees, rather than this be a basic part of the social contract as members of society?

Do we as citizens and particularly those of us who have chosen to enter the field of health care have obligations beyond caring for our patients – to address systemic shortcomings and abuses the adversely impact the public health? Or is medicine just a job, and our goals to maximize profit?
Read more here: “Medical Debt Collector to Settle Suit for $2.5 Million”

47.608945-122.332015

Tagged: debt, emergency rooms, ER, health, Health Policy, Legal Issues, medical care, public health, society, The Practice of Medicine 2 Comments

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • The Quality Divide: What Makes a Quality IME Physician?
  • The Quality Divide: Is Your Vendor Driving IME Excellence?
  • The Quality Divide: When and How to Request an IME?
  • April Clinic Calendars Are Available
  • MCN’s Client Portal Login Page is Changing

Archives

Footer


  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Quick Links

  • Services
  • Expertise
  • About MCN
  • Careers

Division Headquarters

MCN
1200 5th Ave., Ste. 650
Seattle, WA 98101

See all offices

Email Us

General Inquiries: info@mcn.com
Sales & Marketing: marketing@mcn.com

Call Us

206.343.6100
800.248.6269

© Copyright 2023 Mitchell International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap