Mayo Clinic announces discounts to uninsured

05/20/2005

Glenn Howatt, Star Tribune
May 20, 2005

The Mayo Clinic said Thursday that it will give discounts to uninsured hospital patients, joining four other health systems that agreed earlier this month to lower prices.

Under a plan brokered by the Minnesota Attorney General’s office and the Minnesota Hospital Association, participating hospitals will charge any uninsured patient with a family income below $125,000 the best price that it gives to managed care members.

Allina Hospitals & Clinics, Fairview Health Services, Park Nicollet Health Services and HealthEast Care System all signed similar voluntary agreements with the attorney general’s office.

Mayo has not yet signed the agreement, but said it intends to have it in place within the next 30 days.

“We support the spirit of this agreement,” said Dr. Hugh Smith, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Rochester clinic. “We feel the principles generally are consistent with Mayo’s collection and charity-care practices.”

The agreement also would commit Mayo to abide by collections practices that give consumers who owe money chances to set up payment plans or to challenge billing errors.

Mayo has not yet contacted Attorney General Mike Hatch, according to spokeswoman Leslie Sandberg.

“We think the agreement is a model and we hope all hospitals will sign,” she said.

Mayo said Minnesota patients who meet the income standard will be eligible for the discounts for care at any of Mayo’s Minnesota hospitals.

In addition to Mayo’s Saint Marys and Methodist hospitals in Rochester, the Mayo system includes Immanuel St. Joseph’s in Mankato and hospitals in Albert Lea, Austin, Fairmont, Lake City, Springfield and Waseca.

Mayo spokesman Chris Gade said the organization traditionally has not provided deep discounts to managed care plans, making the gap between its list and discount prices relatively small.

Because uninsured patients are charged the full list prices, hospital industry critics have contended that the uninsured have been saddled with unreasonably high hospital bills that few of them can afford.

The issue has also drawn attention from the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House, which recently asked 10 national hospital systems, including Mayo, to supply it with information about billing practices.

“It is not based on something punitive, it is a survey of information,” Gade said of the committee request. “We are included in that only because we happen to be one of the ten largest provider systems in the country.”

Gade said Mayo has a long tradition of providing assistance to those who can’t afford care. In 2004, charity care at Mayo’s Minnesota operations amounted to $16 million.