HSCMH holds public meeting

Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital (HSCMH) held a public meeting at the Senior Center Monday night to discuss public concern regarding hospital billing practices and answer questions about Medicare and standard health insurance practices.

The hospital was prepared with more than just an array of food and handouts - multiple staff members, covering all billing and reception areas of the hospital, were on hand to answer questions. Unfortunately, the public meeting was not well attended.

The meeting started with an overview of terminology used at HSCMH including medical record numbers versus encounter numbers, co-pays, premiums, deductibles, and more. Medicare versus Medicare Advantage plans were discussed in detail.

Several hospital board members were in attendance and asked questions about how the hospital’s outside billing agency, First Party Receivables Solution (FPRS), handles patient billing. FPRS handles the hospital’s early out (first 120 days) statements by sending out statements and setting up payment plans.

If no payment activity is reported, the statement returns to Larinda Bushur, Financial Counselor at HSCMH, who attempts to contact the party and arrange for payment. If this effort fails, the bill is sent to collections. Because FPRS is located in Greeley, Colo., first statements are sent from this return address – something that has thrown off some patrons.

An individual commented that a large item for confusion for many community members seemed to be the fact that with each encounter for each family member, a separate bill was issued.

With a large family and multiple medical issues, this could amount to many separate bills, becoming confusing for the guarantor of the family very quickly. Bushur stated that the guarantor could contact FPRS and request all encounters be linked and set up for a single payment plan to reduce individual billing statements for each medical event. This option cannot be currently pre-requested but HSCMH is working on a new statement that could include all of this information in the future.

Bushur commented on the public meeting: “I think the meeting went very well. This was our first time presenting this material, and it gave us an opportunity to run through the presentation and address questions in a great atmosphere. We look forward to continuing this type of education to both inform the public, and keep to our commitment to ‘partner with our community for quality health and healing.’ While we wish more people had shown up to hear the material, we felt that those in attendance left with a better understanding of our billing, and how their insurance worked. Based on the questions and feedback, we feel we have created an excellent vehicle in which to engage the community, and keep them informed of both their healthcare, and their hospital.”