Prepayment now required for some procedures

For a long time, hospitals and clinics have frequently stated that they are unable to provide exact pricing for many surgeries until after the procedures are completed, citing a number of variables that might affect the final numbers. Now, however, some hospitals are requiring patients to pay before the procedure.

If hospitals are viewed as for-profit entities, this trend makes sense: hospitals can spend much less effort chasing down payments if they collect payments before the procedure -- perhaps when the patients are most motivated to pay. The article points out the "corporatization" trend in healthcare, where "more medical practices were owned by corporations than hospital systems."

Requiring prepayment of non-emergency services might still make sense for non-profit entities, if those entities have an appropriate charity policy to benefit the community sufficiently to justify the benefits of their non-profit status -- after all, those who can afford the procedure probably should not be allowed to impose onerous administrative work in collecting on bills. Fortunately, requiring patients to prepay for emergency services is not allowed.

Either way, it appears that these institutions no longer have qualms about disclosing pricing ahead of time. It is ironic, however, that the article points out that a hospital system that overcharged a patient was slow to refund the difference, requiring months of wrangling by the patient. Some sort of penalty on the hospital for creating the extra work in this case seems appropriate.