According to a report by CBS on August 12th, due to the increasing costs of medical care, many hospitals in the United States have started to promote the 'prepaid mode' in recent years. Patients are required to pay high upfront medical fees before they are eligible for treatment.
Living in Denver, Zoldani said that in early April 2024, he flew to Mayo Clinic in Phoenix due to severe headaches. When making the appointment, the hospital informed him that the clinic was part of his insurance company’s service network.
Upon reaching the destination, he was summoned to the clinic’s finance office, where it was required that he pay a deposit of $5,000 in advance. The reason for this was that the clinic later decided not to accept his insurance plan. Even though his insurance included benefits for seeking medical treatment outside of the network, the system still automatically classified him as an “out-of-pocket patient”.
He couldn’t afford to pay this huge amount of money, and he was also angry about it. Therefore, he refused to pay the advance payment, and his reservation was immediately canceled.
"I was furious at the time," recalled Zolda. He later learned that before his appointment, a patient portal on the insurance company's platform had sent him an estimated bill for 565 USD, far lower than the exorbitant deposit he would eventually be asked to pay.
Reports indicate that in the past, American patients would only receive bills for parts of their treatment after they had received treatment. However, the situation faced by Zoradan is becoming more common. More and more hospitals and medical institutions are demanding upfront payment from patients. This trend undoubtedly makes the situation even worse for patients.
Currently, due to rising hospital service prices, drug costs, and labor expenses, American insurance companies are trying to shift more of these costs onto patients. As a result, the deductible amounts in health insurance have been increasing, causing patients to have to pay a larger portion of their medical expenses out of their own pockets. Hospitals anticipate that more patients will be unable to afford medical expenses, so they try to collect a larger share of patients' medical fees as early as possible.
Kaiser Family Foundation visiting senior researcher, Chip Kaun, former president and CEO of the American Hospital Association said: "Prepaid deposits before treatment will become more and more common. This will increase the burden on medical institutions and clinicians, and the situation for patients will become even more difficult."
Richard Gordon, Senior Vice President of the American Healthcare Financial Management Association, stated that this behavior essentially forces patients to "bear the insurance risk by themselves." He added: "The real difficulty lies in how to ensure people can receive medical services despite increasing numbers of patients facing difficulties covering out-of-pocket costs."
