I’m referring to any provider trying to collect. I can’t really decipher the rest of the paragraph.

“guess the answer to every question is “more lawyers.”

I didn’t ADVOCATE it. I just said that a class action is the most efficient way. What would you suggest they do? If they would rather represent themselves in small claims court, that doesn’t bother me.

I don’t care if you give me credit or not. What I do care about is that healthcare is getting ready to be nationalized, and you’re fussing about something unrelated.

interesting how in another thread you advocate for patients hiring lawyers to get a class action suit going against california to get their $50 back, and in this thread you advocate for hospitals to hire lawyers to go after patients who can’t pay their medical bill. guess the answer to every question is “more lawyers.”

i guess if you’re willing to admit that “some” malpractice lawyers are part of the problem, you deserve “some” more credit then i give you though.

anyway. another discussion proving to not be worth my time. bye.

Absolutely. That’s what businesses all over do. Including hospitals. I’m curious as to how you know exactly what will happen when you’ve apparently got no experience doing it.

1. Yes
2. Some, yes.
3. Yes

i can tell you 3 things that would happen if this tactic was taken- one, the poor/uninsured would either go bankrupt trying to pay these bills or die in the streets with untreated medical problems, since the ED will no longer be a safety net for them. two, physicians and hospitals will be vilified for trying to collect money from the indigent. three, the lawyers hired by the hospitals will make a killing.

i’d also like to address your comment that “you guys are as much to blame as the public at large.” i happen to be a physician that believes we physicians are definitely part of the problem… but before i elaborate on that, i’d like to ask you 3 questions. they are all “yes or no” questions, and you may give as lengthy a response as you’d like to each question- all i ask is that you clearly state whether your answer to each is “yes or no.”

1. i believe that physicians, patients, insurance companies, cms (the government), hospital administrators, clipboard-wielding organizations such as JC, drug/device companies, and survey-makers like press ganey all have some responsibility and are part of the problem in the giant clusterf*** that is american health care. do you agree with me? yes or no?

2. leaving aside who is more to blame than who, i believe that malpractice lawyers are also part of the problem, and deserve a share of the blame for the current situation we are in. do you agree with me? yes or no?

3. are you a lawyer? yes or no?

Here’s where you need to really spend your lobbying time. You need to lobby to set up income levels where govt support is warranted. For example, if you can afford it, you don’t get a public defender – you have to pay for it yourself. Same with healthcare.

The problem is, and you guys are as much to blame as the public at large, is you’ve bought into the healthcare is a right line. You speak of your industry of this monolith, instead of simply people procuring services and advice from a professional on individual bases. No other professionals, except for legal services in limited situations – ie indigent criminal defendants, have clients with “rights” to access their services.

You need to steer the national conversation to a basic level of care to the poor, and everyone else starts paying. Take credit cards, set up payment plans with your customers, and if they don’t pay, garnish their tax returns and wages. Just like any other creditor who provides goods or services to them would.

i think you’re missing the point if you think we all don’t want to see patients. the same logic could be applied to you- by suggesting means to relieve overcrowding, you are saying you want to see less patients.

The government gravy train you rode for 30 years is over. It was good while it lasted. Your predecessors had a great standard of living from it. But let it go before you don’t have a choice.

Instead of finding every last reason NOT to see a patient. Bring ‘em on. Face it. Health care is consumer driven, and the consumers–justifiably-want the ED.

Bill ourselves as diagnostic centers if need be, tap into the ARRA 2009 somehow to direct funds toward overcrowding relief by rewarding back-door decompression by hospitals. Fund more residencies…staff for a larger volume.

Build it..and they will come….