Uninsured motorist (UM) insurance pays victims of car crashes for medical bills and property damage when the at-fault driver either has no insurance, or their insurance coverage is so low that it doesn’t fully cover the costs. more
Ga Supreme Court Strikes Down Malpractice Cap, Strengthens Patients Rights
By Jonathan Shapiro
This past March, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that limits on jury awards in medical malpractice cases are unconstitutional.
“The very existence of the caps, in any amount, is violative of the right to trial by jury,” wrote Chief Justice Carol Hunstein. “[The cap] clearly nullifies the jury’s findings of fact regarding damages and thereby undermines the jury’s basic function.”
The ruling effectively strikes down the centerpiece of Georgia’s sweeping 2005 tort reform law, Senate Bill 3, which capped noneconomic awards – including those for pain and suffering – at $350,000. Read more
Paying on paid-off cars
Title pawn loans are short-term, high-interest loans that use a borrower’s car title as collateral. Title lenders often target poor communities and military installations with promises of hassle-free fast cash. In reality, borrowers often do not understand the ultimate price of their title loan – which is cryptically hidden in contracts with confusing financial language. more
Not in our state
Payday lending was never legal in Georgia. But the penalty for offering payday loans was never harsh enough to deter lenders, nor did it give the police much incentive to enforce the law. more
Since 2006, Georgia Watch has pushed the legislature to add more consumer members to the State Medical Board – members who work outside the medical profession. Consumer members help balance the interests on the board and improve the representation of average consumers in closed-door disciplinary hearings. Disciplinary hearings occur after alleged incidents of malpractice or negligence. more
In 2005, several statewide advocacy groups promoted what we believe is a sound approach that would go a long way to lower malpractice premiums for doctors AND promote patient safety: House Bill 779, also known as The Consumer Right to Participate Act.
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As many as 195,000 people are killed by medical errors each year, according to health care consulting firm HealthGrades Inc. Even so, providing safer care for patients in doctors’ offices, hospitals and nursing homes is not a priority for many of our state leaders or the health care industry.
*Source: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
1. Don’t ignore the problem.
The further behind you become, the harder it will be to reinstate your loan and the more likely that you will lose your house. more
Currently in Georgia, one in eight home loans is past due and on the verge of foreclosure. While the subprime market represents just 13 percent of all outstanding loans in Georgia, subprime foreclosures accounted for 40 percent of the total number of Georgia foreclosures in the first quarter of 2009. more
Uncategorized
Health care is one market where consumers are perpetually at a disadvantage and are consistently denied the fundamental options and choices that are available in other consumer-driven industries.
While there are many different causes for this lack of consumer control, one major factor is the absence of straightforward and clear information. For health care consumers, details on the most basic information – such as pricing and financial assistance eligibility – are scarce.
The majority of hospitals in the state are tax-exempt organizations, and are obligated to their communities to provide some level of financial assistance, either through their participation in Medicaid and/or their offering of financial assistance to needy patients. The latter is generally referred to as “community benefits” and include charity and indigent care.
In return, these facilities are typically subsidized by state and local governments. For example, tax-exempt nonprofit hospitals do not pay most taxes, including sales, income and property. Because of this, tax-exempt nonprofit hospitals do not contribute to vital local infrastructure, such as road and sewer maintenance, or firefighter and police forces, even though they utilize these services.
But, some hospitals participate in practices that are questionable in regards to proper stewardship of our foregone tax dollars, such as maintaining large reserves of cash and paying its executives wages that are similar to that of Fortune 500 companies while charging self-pay/uninsured patients significantly inflated charges that often puts care out of reach.
For example, many tax-exempt nonprofit hospitals in Georgia charge uninsured patients a significantly higher cost for services than average payments received from most third party payers, such as private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. While most hospitals offer financial assistance, some do not alert patients to the availability of this assistance. In addition, many hospitals employ aggressive collection tactics when a patient bill.
All hospitals are unique – some are leaders in community betterment while others are underperformers in regards to financial programs for indigent and nearly poor patients. As a consumer advocacy group, we feel it is our role to examine the financial practices of hospitals, especially facilities who act as a ‘safety net’ in their communities, in order to provide clear and transparent information for our state’s healthcare consumers.
Because of this, in 2007, Georgia Watch began authoring an ongoing series of reports that examine the finances and community offerings of hospitals in the state. The research and analysis is based on figures reported by the hospital to the IRS, the US Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and other publicly available sources.
Hospitals are already examined are:
- Memorial University Medical Center (Savannah)
- Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital (Albany)
- Northside Hospital (Atlanta)
- Medical Center of Central Georgia(Macon)
- Floyd Medical Center (Rome)
- Northeast Georgia Medical Center (Gainesville)
What is the Indigent Care Trust Fund?
The Indigent Care Trust Fund (ICTF) is a state-sponsored program that subsidizes care for low-income individuals at participating hospitals. This subsidized care is available on both an inpatient and outpatient basis, regardless of whether there is an emergency. It can either cover an entire bill or just a portion, depending on income. The hospital must treat these patients the same as any other patient. The hospitals receive a certain amount of money each year to provide this care.
What are hospitals required to do if they receive this money? Hospitals participating in the ICTF must:
- Treat low-income patient for free or on a sliding scale;
- Notify patients being admitted to the hospital as well as the public that it receives ICTF funds;
- Let patients know how to apply for help from the ICTF;
- Have a written financial policy available to the public upon request;
- Not require eligible patients to pay a deposit upon admittance to the hospital;
- Help patients apply for ICTF funds before or after treatment; and,
- Help patients from any county in Georgia, regardless of whether that is the county where they live.
What does the ICTF exclude? For most hospitals, the ICTF does not cover doctor bills or Medicare deductibles.
How do I apply? You can call the hospital’s business office and ask for the person who handles patient accounts or billings, or the hospital’s social worker, if they have one. Once you have contacted the hospital and completed an application, the hospital has five business days to make a decision as to whether you are eligible for free or sliding scale care. You can also complete this application at the hospital.
What do I do if the hospital rejects my application?
Ask the hospital to reconsider your application. If they deny you again, you have the right to appeal to the state for eligibility.
How can I appeal? Send a written complaint to the Department of Community Health (DCH) explaining why you feel the hospital was wrong in denying your application, and request that DCH asks the hospital to change its decision. You will also need to send a complaint to the hospital.
Send the appeal to:
Indigent care Trust Fund, Hospital Reimbursement Services
Department of Community Health
PO Box 38490
Two Peachtree Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30303-3159
Phone: (404) 463-5827 or (877) 261-3117
For more information contact Hospital Accountability Project Manager Holly Lang at (404) 525-1085 or via email at hlang@georgiawatch.org
The Consumer Energy Program is working to make sure stimulus money coming to the sate are used for the best possible energy programs. Stipulations in President Obama’s stimulus package will provide $130 million to Georgia for weatherization assistance programs, including attic insulation, reduction of air leakage around doors, basement insulation and heating system repairs or replacement.
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In 2005 , the Georgia General Assembly delivered a present to Big Insurance, the hospital and medical lobbies, and corporate giants Georgia Pacific, Home Depot, Georgia Power and Coca-Cola. It was called Senate Bill 3, and it severely changed the state’s justice system.
Despite decades of dangerous recalls and fraudulent drug trials related to FDA-approved drugs and medical devices, Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) filed Senate Bill 101 which would extend immunity from civil lawsuits filed in Georgia to Georgia-based pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of FDA-approved products.
Tort Reform
Tort reform refers to proposed changes in the civil justice system that would reduce tort litigation or damages. Tort is a system for compensating wrongs and harm done by one party to another’s person, property or other protected interests. Tort reform advocates like Georgia Watch, focus on personal injury in particular. more
- Malware programs steal personal data online. These programs climbed to more than 1.2 million this year from 135,000 in 2007.
- 90 percent of malware programs are designed to grab personal information like SSNs and credit cared numbers from online sites that are not protected with spyware.
- Consumers expose themselves to malware by downloading attachments or clicking links in emails.
- Theives find information by looking through the trash, filling out postal change of address forms in the victims name and hacking into online records.
- After obtaining personal information, a theif may commit new account fraud, which occurs when an identity thief uses a victim’s name and SSN to apply for new credit.
You may be eligible to participate in Georgia Watch’s new Hospital Accountability Project (HAP). Contact Georgia Watch to fill out a 26 question survey regarding your personal health care and your impressions of the health system in your area. Survey results will be analyzed and used in upcoming Georgia Watch reports. To learn more about HAP, click here. Or contact Holly Lang at (404) 525-1085 or mailto:hlang@georgiawatch.org.