They qualified for free medical care, but were billed anyway. How is Maryland working to provide refunds?
For years, Maryland hospitals billed patients who qualified for free medical care. Now, the hospitals, state agencies and the Health Services Cost Review Commission are working on plans to provide refunds to those patients.
According to a report in the Baltimore Banner, the refunds will be issued to those patients who qualified for free care but were issued bills between 2017 and 2021. Part of the challenge, however, will be coordinating billing information, protecting patient privacy and locating those patients.
Maryland State Delegate Lorig Charkoudian, a Democrat who was among lawmakers examining medical billing issues in the state, told WTOP that in Maryland, patients may qualify for free or reduced-cost care.
As Charkoudian explained it, someone who goes to the hospital, often the emergency room, and qualifies for low-cost or free care “is supposed to be informed about the possibility, supported to apply and should receive it.”
But, Charkoudian said, over a period of years, numerous patients were charged for millions of dollars in care when they should not have been. And in some cases, they were taken to court — a nightmare, Charkoudian said, for someone who may have been unable to pay $250.
Charkoudian said a series of bills passed in Annapolis led to the plan to refund affected patients, and added that “the hospitals have engaged in good faith” in trying to correct the billing issues and facilitate the refunds.
“I do think that financial assistance and medical debt is something that we need to continue to work on,” Charkoudian said, adding that for now, she will focus on seeing how the refund process goes.
Charkoudian also said that “Maryland is now considered to have some of the strongest protections in place” for patients when it comes to medical billing, especially for the poorest residents.
“It doesn’t mean we’re done,” Charkoudian said. ” I think we have a long way to go.”
According to the Banner, the checks could start being sent out to patients by mid-2024.