Want to receive health care?...check your credit score first

[markomalley]

(I understand I did a bit of an alarmist thread title...but I got you to look, didn't I?)

Credit score for medical bills coming soon

Health care, credit industries join forces in planning medFICO

By Jason Roberson

McClatchy News Service

Article Last Updated: 01/18/2008 11:55:53 PM MST

DALLAS - Mortgage lenders aren't the only ones showing more interest in your credit score these days - the health industry is creating its own score to judge your ability to pay.

The new medFICO score, being designed with the help of credit industry giant Fair Isaac Corp., could debut as early as this summer in some hospitals.

Healthcare Analytics, a Waltham, Mass., health technology firm, is developing the score. It is backed by funding from Fair Isaac, of Minneapolis; Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp.; and venture capital firm North Bridge Venture Partners, also based in Waltham. Each kicked in $10 million for the project.

The score is already raising questions from consumer advocacy groups that fear it will be checked before patients are treated. People with low medical credit scores could receive lower-quality care than those with a healthy medFICO, they argue.

''How much assurance do I have that they're not going to look at this medFICO first, before they decide whether to treat or not?'' asked Linda Foley, founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego.

That will not happen, says Stephen Farber, chairman and chief executive of Healthcare Analytics. Hospitals will check the score, which will be based on the patient's medical bill payment history, only after the patient is discharged, he said.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune, 1/18/2008

You can read the rest of the article (it gives a little more back and forth, but no real additional data).

Also, see Dallas Morning News article.

Or choose your article through Google.

So what do you think?

[waysider]

SNIP

That will not happen, says Stephen Farber, chairman and chief executive of Healthcare Analytics. Hospitals will check the score, which will be based on the patient's medical bill payment history, only after the patient is discharged, he said.

SNIP

(I added the bolding)

So what do you think?

Hmmmm.

OK---Suppose you are "discharged" and then readmitted at a later date?