I certain hope they do not do this. If credit score is being use for Medical issue, then we cannot negotiate the debts and settle it. Meaning the insurance will high jack again.

I've always wondered why it was more important to worry about the health care provider than about the patient. Why doesn't somebody develop a credit score for companies so consumers can better avoid getting ripped off by shoddy products or services? It's apparently all about big business (and I include American health care in that mix) and not about the folks who keep business going - the consumers and workers of this country.

America is being sold down the river. In 20 years the founding fathers would be hard pressed to recognize the nation they founded.

If a persons 'credit score' or their 'ability to pay' is not going to have an effect on their medical care, then why go to the expense of doing it. Whey not channel that money into better patient care? Why should it matter when that person comes in the door sick or injured if they can pay or not? I have double coverage insurance and I can assure you a persons ability to pay has an effect on their care.

"This is a bad idea and I don't think this benefits the consumer at all"

Obviously, the people who have come up with this don't CARE if it benefits the consumer. It's going to benefit the medical establishment (i.e insurance companies/HMO's, healthcare corporations, etc.) and that's all they care about. In all the talk about the problems with our healthcare system, nobody has pointed the obvious fact that the problem does not lie in the lack of insurance coverage. No, our problems are due to the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and large healthcare systems that are now in charge of our healthcare. No longer are the medical providers in charge of what treatment you get - it's now all controlled by the big business side. And this will NEVER change until lobbyists are outlawed because these companies (HMO's/insurers, pharmaceutical co's) spend more money getting Senators and Congressmen in their hip pockets than anyone other than, possibly, the energy companies.

Obviously an attempt to deny care. For-profit hospitals value money more than curing illness. They should be banned.

Time for a basic national health service.
If all the industrial countries and Cuba can do it so can the USA.

You cannot acurately track this information. Most payments are delayed do to errors in the processing of charge codes (accounts receivables fault) or payment by the insurance companies. The only thing you could track is wether or not the bill got paid in full eventually.

This is just wrong. Very very wrong. Plain and simple. It's bad enough the insurance companies are allowed to choose who live and who dies. Perfect example, Cigna denying that teenage girl's liver transplant and she passed away due to their decision. Now the hospitals want that same decision making ability as well. "If you are unable to pay, you die. Sorry."

Simple, if allowed to do it, IT WILL BE USED TO DETERMINE CARE. They do not own the data on the individuals, why can they sell it? JUST SAY NO (not that we have a voice anymore but...)

Have fun finding a Doctor, once you are black listed. Also the Insurance company takes time to pay, mistakes are made, payments delayed. Unless you are rich enough to pay the bill, you will have a bad record. Also once you pay, it harder to get the provider and insurance company to resolve the issue.

This is the most insane idea I have ever heard!!!!
How dare they try and prevent medical attention to
people who might need it. Shame on them.
Where are the doctors who wanted to help sick people?
What is this country becoming? It is a sad place.

It sounds to me that a credit score for medical bills would not take long to be tied together with your other credit scores, giving some people with large medical bills and good credit a bad overall credit score.

After a many decades of hordes of sneaky weasels creating full employment for themselves and their cohorts, all of whom truly do nothing of value for humanity, the result in many respects is seen in the news every day. The FED is pumping tens of billions of dollars into the banking system to cover the twenties of billions of dollars that have been misplaced or simply lost by the same banks, mortagage companies, and financial institutions that found it so easy to use all the various credit scores and data for a while to rob as many common folk as they could. Now, they are doing considerably worse for their investors and owners than even the lowest rated customer could ever do based on credit reports and assorted credit scores . . .

Who are these people, and why do we tolerate them?

Why do we let them devise new ways to use our personal information against us, while charging us outrageous fees to do it?

What do they actually contribute to society?

Do they build anything? Do they find cures for diseases? Do they do anything of redeeming value?

No!

All they do is count things obsessively, arranging them into oddly devised patterns that do not exist naturally, and then they count and arrange them again and again, all the while thinking that they are doing something useful . . .

From a different perspective, considering this is an election year where one of the primary themes is universal healthcare, why are the sneaky weasels devising patient scoring systems?

Is this in anticipation that there will be universal healthcare for common folk and some type of advanced private care for carefully selected, wealthy sneaky weasels?

Is this the way the sneaky weasels finally will rid their world of common folks, which is their ultimate goal?

All you need to do to understand the bigger picture is to put it into the perspective of Cain and Abel . . .

Study the names of the companies whence cometh the people who are devising the so-called "MedFICO", and then do a few searches on those companies to see what they have been doing over the past few years . . .

Might one of the companies have operated a hospital or two in New Orleans where it appears that patients essentially were executed rather than treated during hurricane Katrina?

With all the resources available in our great nation, was it simply impossible for Tenet to hire some helicopters, boats, or trucks to evacuate their hospitals in New Orleans safely?

FedEx certainly appears to have had few difficulties moving several of its standard emergency communication stations to key locations atop buildings in New Orleans, which for a while was the only actually working telecommunication system in the region . . .

Why is FedEx able to respond quickly to emergencies anywhere in the world at a moment's notice, but hospitals cannot?

Connect the dots yourself . . .

Realistically, there might be a grand total of nothing than common folk can do about any of this other take a tiny bit of pleasure in reading in the news each day that all the banks, mortgage companies, and financial institutions that have been weaseling common folk now are dealing with a huge bit of long overdue bad karma or whatever else you might want to call it . . .

Let the hoist themselves on their own petards . . .

Thanks!

right now it is illegal to refuse treament to any person regardless of his/her ability to pay. What do you think will happen if medfico becaomes a reality. I thought communism was all but extinct execpt in Cuba and China?

right now it is illegal to refuse treament to any person regardless of his/her ability to pay. What do you think will happen if medfico becaomes a reality. I thought communism was all but extinct execpt in Cuba and China?

Are you freaking kidding me? What if you were one of the 800,000 people who got screwed by Countrywide Financial, during the recent home loan scandal?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-cleveland1208jan12,0,4248374.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/chi-foreclose_bdnov04,0,5988353.story?coll=chi_tab05_layout

So, you're telling me that because you had late payments on a house whose payment doubled unexpectedly, or if you even lost your house (remember, several cities are facing a crisis becaseu of all these homes being forclosed) you could be denied medical service?

WTFO?

Medical facilities are in no position to be scoring patients. They are way behind the times on keeping their paperwork up-to-date and tracking payments and bills. With my first pregnancy I had 1) a doctor take well over 6 months to pay me back the $200 I was forced to over-pay before they delivered my baby 2) a dr send me to a bill collector WITHOUT EVER SENDING ME A BILL, even though I had called the office a couple times asking for my bill and 3) after incident #2, I called the hospital and demanded my hospital bill (my newborn was now a good 9 months old) and they tried to talk me out of it, saying they were still in negotiations with the insurance company to save me money. I said I don't care about saving money at this point, just give me the bill before you send me to collections like dr. #2. There is no way these people are competent enough to give me a credit score.

Don't you think it's a little irresponsible to title this posting "The Doctor Will See Your Credit Now" given that the entire article is focused on HMO CEOs, hospital administrators, and investors more concerned with the bottom dollar than patient care. Today's population is already distrustful of MDs, sometimes for good reason, but often because stories in the media highlight how patient care is compromised for financial reasons. These too often are blamed on the physician caring for the patient when the doctor is stuck working within a system that has progressively robbed him/her of the independence to care for the patient in the best manner possible. MDs need to be held accountable for the decisions they make, but not blamed for all the flaws in modern healthcare.

Just two questions. Will illegal aliens be assigned a MedFICO score too? Will this put a clamp-down on them getting free healthcare? I sure hope so!

If this isn't an argument for national health care, I don't know what is. Out of all of the pro-business, screw-the-consumer ideas that have come up this decade, this has to be the worst.

Perfect, this is just what a poor medical system needs, an excuse to give even poorer medical care.
There should be a Medical Insurance FICO, (MIFICO)!

Be very careful middle class-with a recession looming, gas and milk so high people are stretched thin- the idea of cutting poor out of health care altogether (make no mistake inability to pay=no health care) is dangerous to you also. Why? Because the middle class may be the poor class very soon.

This will be mess. Health-care providers are notorious for messing up bills. I've had two separate providers send me late-payment notices after I'd already paid them. Thankfully, I had the documents to prove that I (and my insurance company) paid. In one case, they had applied my payment to another patient's account. In another, they just didn't put it in the books.
There also was another time where I had a large fee for tests done at a major hospital. I entered into a payment agreement, whereby I agreed to make two separate payments. After I'd sent in my first payment and BEFORE the second payment was even due, I received a letter from a collection agency, informing me that the hospital had sent my account into collections! After sending multiple certified letters and copies of proof of payment, I finally got it worked out, but it scares me how easily my credit could have been ruined.

(Agrees with Don from Kansas City, above)
My insurance has NEVER paid any medical bills on time. Will my credit score be lowered because the co. can't find their a** and pay up? There are too many ways that consumers can suffer here, and not enough benefits.

Isn't there a Medical Code of Ethics? Something about "A physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights".

Money has become more important than people. This cannot be allowed to be reality. People WILL DIE. right now the insurance companies have too much control over our healthcare but credit its just too much to comprehend

We absolutely need privacy laws that restrict the ability of companies to collect private data on individuals for whom they have no existing business relationship. Germany has this kind of law.

This is very disturbing. Credit scores should have absolutely NOTHING to do with patient care period. I can predict if this comes to pass the ER's will be even more crowded than they are now since they can't deny you treatment there. They can't even regulate the regular FICO score and sometimes it takes months to correct mistakes like identity theft so why the hell would this idea even be toyed with in the first place....

Wow...as if healthcare in the U.S. doesn't have enough problems. This makes my stomach turn.

The irony is that this will push people toward socialized medicine, which will bankrupt the USA well before is current projection of 2030. The simple answer is to illegalize invasive data collection and protect privacy.

From now on, when you go for treatment, just walk through the ER door and tell them you're an illegal alien and cannot pay. From what I hear the ER staff cannot refuse you service for inability to pay.

Pay your bills and you won't have to worry about your score. Why are doctors and hospitals expected provide free care to everyone that walks even if they have no intention of paying? No other business is expected to operate that way.

This is very scary to me. I am 100% against this in any form. The chances for identy fraud and just plan disregard for a persons privacy will go out the window. This program needs to be stopped as I can see the potential for abuse of the information and harm to a person or persons in need of health care.

The greed rearing its ugly head again. When will it ever stop? Not until we send the elected officials that we now have home and replace them with ones that care about the little guy. We continue to get shafted by insurance companies, the medical profession and most of all...our government. Somebody help us please.

Just goes to show you, that its all about the money, and not helping people, it use to be when people became doctors, they wanted to help people, but over the past so many years , it has become all about the money, greed greed, greed... So in reality, they don't give a sht about you or your health, only your money.. This means that many people will die now...

So does this mean illegal immigrants will continue to get better health care than legal immigrants and citizens?

This is a despicable idea. I sure hope our soon to be elected presidential candidates are paying attention and even more important "WE" as voters challenge those candidates to fight against these keep of shameful practices.

This is a very bad idea. Not only does it empower hospitals and insurance companies with "too much information"; it exacerbates the gap between the "haves and have nots". Totally unnecessary --- money needs to be spent on reducing costs and providing better patient services -- not figuring out ways to do "pre-selective treatment" based on some formula determining an "ability to pay" score. Ridiculous.

So if your having a heart attack you get to wait and see if your credit score will allow you to be admitted to the e/r and hospital??? How is this going to benifit anyone???

In some ways I agree with this prectice. But I think it would be better used as with car insurance. The more claims that are filed, the more your insurance goes up. So, the more times you takeIn some ways I agree with this practice. But I think it would be better used as with car insurance. The more claims that are filed, the more your insurance goes up. So, the more times you take the kids/yourself to the Dr, the higher YOUR premiums go up and not everyone else's. It's time some of these hypochondriacs pay for their own medical issues instead of us middle class people who only go when absolutely needed. the kids/yourself to the Dr, the higher YOUR premiums go up and not everyone elses. It's time some of these hypocondriacs pay for their own medical issues instead of us middle class people who only go when absolutely needed.

THIS IS EVIL....... these people need to get a life and find a company that helps pay for medical costs, not make DERAGATORY AND DISPARAGING REMARKS about people, when it is the economy and not an individuals problem that they can or can't get healthcare..

I think MedFICO might run afoul of HIPPA. Someone could go to jail for disclosing personal data about my medical relationship with a hospital for purposes other than necessary to get paid or to provide my medical care.

What I want to know what is this country coming to? It is to be a democracy, but we sure aren't heading that way. I don't want national health care -- it doesn't work in Canada or Europe. Now they want us to have FICO scores for medical purposes. If the Progressives need to be told every move to make by Big Brother, maybe they should go form their own country. They'll do this to Americans but give Illegal Immigrants free medical care. Spare me.

This would be an EMTALA violation, in the ER you can not refuse to treat a patient on the basis of whether a patient can pay or not.

This should be made explicitly illegal. Period. The benefits are to few and the risks far, far too great.

It's not hard to figure out where this will go.
A bad idea is is stil a bad idea no matter how you spin it. It's totally unethical and we can only hope that most health care providers won't have anything to do with it.

see this MEDscore article

It's not hard to figure out where this will go.
A bad idea is is stil a bad idea no matter how you spin it. It's totally unethical and we can only hope that most health care providers won't have anything to do with it.

This is just ridiculous. If medical credit scoring is even enacted, I'm leaving the country altogether.

This is an awful thought they they would actually do this. I work in an industry that I can see how a low credit score affects someone who is trying to buy a car or a home is affected. How will this effect their health benefits? Will we not qualify for that EEG because our score may be too low? What a frightening thought!Your credit score already affects you buying anything on credit including auto insurance.
I have always thought that this "scoring" system that Fair Issac has created is so unfair. So many good people that pay their bills on time, that have good credit are penalized because they have a low score. It is a very unfair system. Even those folks with a low score or bad credit deserve better. I wish somebody would take on this "Fair Issac" in a court of law. He isn't that fair at all.

This is simply another insurance fraud.
I don't know how many of you have seen the movie sicko but you can bet there is politics involved.
When tricky Dick made the deal with Kaiser to start hmo's he said whats my end.
Now who is trying to stick their dirty fingers in the cookie jar and why isn't our Congress and Senators letting this kind of thin go on?
Do you want to do something about it?
Call your local congressman and or senator and tell them about it.
If you don't vote don't bother you have no say in the matter.
Remember we the people have a say as long as we vote and as long as these politicians know they need us.
You can bet your bottom dollar there is one or more involved.
Always is. VOTE NEXT TIME

I am a veteran who fought for his country and my country makes me ashamed. We fall short of humanity on just about every score. It is time for a new world leader. We failed !

I am curious as to how the records will be kept.
Currently, neither my wife not I give our socials to doctor's offices.

Yet another reason why we should move OUT of this country and into one that cares about its people's health rather than their ability to give THEM money.

Here again is the stupid people at work. It seems these people do not care about the consumer and what hoops we have to jump through to get anything!!!! Why would a ER, hospital, doctor, etc., care about a FICO score when they are bound by their code of ethics and that they are suppose to be for helping the injured and sick. What is happening to our country? If we are not careful, we will not have a country, instead just a place to live and that won't be all that great either. PEOPLE, wake up!

I am a veteran who fought for his country and my country makes me ashamed. We fall short of humanity on just about every score. It is time for a new world leader. We failed !

I can afford to pay any medical bills and even I think medical scoring is a terrrible idea!

People, don't use this as an excuse to allow "national" health care to be foisted upon us. Canada is using any excuse to deny people treatment. Currently they are using the excuse of being overweight. In the UK, they are denying people treatments because they're too old. Is this what you really want? Also, let me clue you all in. Their healthcare isn't free, just nationalized. Don't let these "MedFico" idiots scare you. They know this idea would be doomed from the start. Calm down and get a grip. This could even be a smoke screen to help push "national health care." Do you really want our government running your health care in light of how they've managed Social Security?

HEllooooooo our info with any doctor or hospital or medical is to be kept private by HEPPA i will in noway condone my info even being given to this company. I smell majorr law suits against the medical facilitys that do give it out

Lets get real here I work in health care my family owns a nursing company and a DME company and a pharmacy. We have owned these for 25 years. Heres the reality of the matter. A hosptial by my house was listed as making a profit of 16.1 billion dollars thats the whole company all their hospitals together now lets look at the facts taht are not included in that 16.1 billion they refer all the nursing care of their patients back to themselves so you can easliy add like another 10 billion to that number. Then they own nursing care places which they refer the nursing people to which most people live out until they die. Also they are a non-profit they pay no taxes on this stuff. To make it worse they loot all this money pay no no taxes then ruin your credit for 800 dollars lol. I think this is a bad idea its greed lol. In all reality the medicare problem is caused by the hospitals Take a person with diabetes to get them a 60 day nursing episode would cost about 1200-3000 dollars 3000 being abnormally high. They get taught about their disease state and how to manage their disease state they dont go to the ER many times after they are taught to manage it and they are pretty much stable after. A guy i know didn't take the teaching he ended up in the ER the cost was 300,000 dollars after 2 weeks of treatment in the hospital. Its the hospitals that are eating up the money, this credit thing just makes it worse for the patients and everyone involved. Who comes up with this stuff anyway. We get about 150-175 patients a year some episodes are long others short but we do about 2 million in business a year. These hospitals have 1000's of beds taht roll over new patients every month they are PAID and whining about chump change when you look at the big picture. Enough of my internet fueled keyboard ranting and raving thanks for listening later lol.

Of course we all know what the healthcare industry is up to. It's not about healing the sick, it's all about the money. Now they're coming up with this gadget. The industry's attitude is "LET the poor folks die - who needs 'em?"

Everyone needs to read this and I think protest it too. With the rising costs of healthcare, the employers cutting back coverage, and more people have to pay out of pocket, like us having to pay $10K before our insurance covers anything, how does this benefit anyone? It's not like I have 10K just sitting aside for the beginning of the year to pay medical bills. And 10K comes at you fast. And once our insurance does cover, it's only 80%, we have to pay the rest. When our son went in the hospital, the remaining amount for us to pay was 2K!!!! Each time he ate pills and I took him to the emergency room- $500 each time on us. And that was just for the ER. We got seperate bills from the doctors. We have to make payments on all of our medical bills, as we don't have the money to pay them up front. This is just insane, and completely not right. The system will be used to deny care to those who need it. The answer is NOT a credit system, but a better healthcare system with coverage for everyone that is affordable.

What I want to know what is this country coming to? It is to be a democracy, but we sure aren't heading that way. I don't want national health care -- it doesn't work in Canada or Europe. Now they want us to have FICO scores for medical purposes. If the Progressives need to be told every move to make by Big Brother, maybe they should go form their own country. They'll do this to Americans but give Illegal Immigrants free medical care. Spare me.

Absolutely insane. It's bad enough that people die while waiting for an insurance company to decide whether or not they're going to pay for a treatment. Now they're going to be able to deny you care, period. But it won't look like they're denying you care--there's the Hippocratic Oath, after all. No, the quality of care will be so low that you die anyway, but no one will be able to say they refused to treat you. It's just another way of weeding out the haves from the have nots. Social Darwinism at its best.

Considering that a full 50% of all bankruptcies in this country are filed because of medical expenses, that's going to kill a lot of people. And for what? MONEY. Health care costs are going to go through the roof now, like they're not bad enough already.

We need a national health system, and we need it NOW. There is no way these megalomaniacs should be allowed to get away with the premeditated murder of thousands of people.

Of course we all know what the healthcare industry is up to. It's not about healing the sick, it's all about the money. Now they're coming up with this gadget. The industry's attitude is "LET the poor folks die - who needs 'em?"

One reason against national health insurance has been that it's not good for government to be making healthcare decisions for me. I have had bad experiences with my insurance company forcing healthcare decisions/drug choices on me for their own profit. Med FICO will only make this worses.

To answer the question about illegal immigrants and "free healthcare" (aka, insured and American Citizens pay for it), the answer is:

Not only will this not address the issue of the demand for "other payor" health care, it will exacerbate the system as identity theft finds a new profit avenue. It's already happening here. People go to teh doctor, only to find out thir benefits are maxed out because of the triple bypass they had this year. Problem is, they are 30 and have no previous cardiac history, not to mention they are lacking the infamous "zipper scar" on their chest.

Here's the real kick in the pants: Once you are assigned a diagnosis code (yes, there is a nationwide database with your diagnosis information), regardless if the code is right, wrong, or even mis-assigned by a mistake in the physician's billing office, it can NEVER BE REMOVED FROM YOUR RECORD! There are no disputes, there is no 7 years and it's gone like a credit report. It is a part of that database for the rest of your natural life, and can affect your ability to get insurance or treatment.

I know this, because I develop electronic medical records, and this is one of the largest problems we are currently dealing with.

I would like to see this time and money spent on a grading system for the hospitals and providers. Just because a doctor went to the same school as the next, doesn't mean he is as good as the next. Let's grade the doctors on how often they've been sued, patient satisfaction, and post surgical outcomes (just to name a few). Let's educate the consumer so we can make a more informed decision on who we choose as a doctor. Besides, I don't know a doctor who doesn't make damn good money. Let's quit grading the consumer and start grading the doctors and hospitals. They are the one providing the service. If a patient refuses to work out a payment plan for a previous service already provided, then you should have the right to deny service. The same as any other industry.

This is really scary!

there is a simple way to treat this illness from the medical care profession. Let them have their so called MEDFico, BUT every consumer has the right to deny being a part of the system. They start up the system and send out a letter to the consumer asking if they want to participate. If they dont want to then they have that option.

If a consumer doesnt participate and the medical provider makes a score on them anyhow then that medical provider would be under the penalty of 1 and a half percent times their yearly revenue with a percentage paid to the person in which they made the score about.

EX. Sally Doe gets her letter and declines to participate in the system. She has an accident and get helthcare treatment. The hospital makes a credit score based on her ability to pay the bill. The governing agency started to prevent the score from being made finds out and levees the fine. If the hospital makes 10 billion in revenue then the fine is 1.5 billion.

I think leveeing the fine of that size is more than neccessary to send a message to the medical provider in saying "look we told you not to do this and you did it anyway so your fine is 1.5 billion dollars."

i think it would turn off the medical provider to doing this kind of business. It is time america fights back against tyranny. The only problem is tyranny is not one face is a collective of faces. Mainly the CEOs of big money.

I am an ER physician and this is a terrible idea with only one goal. To help insurance companies make even more money. Healthcare is sacred and should not follow the same capitalist rules as business. I take offense at the idea that Insurance companies first obligation is to deliver as much profit to it's share holders and patient care is really an afterthought. This is just another way that big business is trying to screw over the consumer. In the ER we turn no one away, regardless of ability to pay but please only go when you absolutely need to. Health care is broken and we are the last safety net and are completely overwhelmed with people who are not having an emergency and have no healthcare or just don't want to wait to see their doctors or can't get into see their doctor in a reasonable time.

This is not bad. All the parasites blogging in don't like it because they want someone else to pay for them. Why should those of us who have been responsible foot the bill for All of the deadbeats. Sure I realize there are many unforeseeable surprise medical expenses which some cannot be expected to pay but the rest of the deadbeats are using those as cop outs

This medfico idea sounds like corporate america looking for another way to screw the people who are supporting their over inflated salaries. We as Americans need a medical system that is not full of sh--. A Socialized Health Care system is exactly what we need, even with its faults it will be better than what we have now.

I'm really scared for this to happen! When will someone do something about our health care system? We need someone in Washington to do something about this.

These idiots that have created the credit rating system in america are not a government agency and need to be stopped. They are just trying to create more problems for american people. (IDIOTS)

Who do you think is really behind this ploy? Hmmm, the insurance companies?

This is just wrong, wrong, wrong! Not only do I forsee an impact on patient care but also on credit scores in general. Currently I have several outstanding medical bills because of continuing treatment that my husband needs and due to being out of work for quite some time we have not had insurance and have not been able to pay them off. We are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel as I have finally landed a full time job, but it will still be quite a while before we can pay those bills off. And until we do I would hate to see our past inability to pay affect his care not to mention our future hope of being able to purchase a house someday.

This is not necessary, not needed, and is just plain wrong! It is bad enough that those without medical degrees get say what is approved and what isn't when it comes to medical care and now we may be faced with credit scores determining that as well?! What is this country coming to?

We need a national health care system like the one that is in place in Canada. If our neighbors to the North can do it so can we!

The rich will continue to get richer, stay healthier, and live longer. Why should we be suprised? The American Dream is no longer affordable for even the middle class. You need to be wealthy or arrive here illegally to expect what used to be available to all Americans - HOPE.

Why worry about the terrorists when Healthcare Analytics, a business right here in the USA, is doing everything they can to kill off American citizens and destroy our country?

The reason a lot people have a bad credit score is because of hospital bills and medical bills. The doctoring profession should care for people who are sick and not care if they can pay or not. If people are sick they can not work and pay their bills.

I think something like this is a good idea...One reason medical costs are so high is because of people defaulting on their bills...If that could be alleviated, it would lower medical costs for the people who can pay...

I was never one to allow free medical care…Hospitals are a business…why should they provide a service if you cannot pay?

If everyone should have free medical “coverage” then the government should pay…not private industry (hospitals)…

Also Medical Malpractice should have limits as well…This would lower costs!!!

Drug companies who pass FDA approval should have blanket protection against lawsuits for the drug that passed…This would lower costs!!!

this has got to be the a very bad idea. medical people are famous for there mistakes and giving them another task to screw up is unthinkable. example i had a medical test done last month. before the test was done i had to pay my co pay both to the doctors and the hospital. 2 days later i received a nasty letter accompied by a bill for the same amount. i called the hospital and after getting referred to 4 different departments the answer given was the hospital automatly prints a bill and this letter and sends them out. they told me to tear the bill and letter up as i had already paid. when i said this was a bad practice they just said o well.

this has got to be the a very bad idea. medical people are famous for there mistakes and giving them another task to screw up is unthinkable. example i had a medical test done last month. before the test was done i had to pay my co pay both to the doctors and the hospital. 2 days later i received a nasty letter accompied by a bill for the same amount. i called the hospital and after getting referred to 4 different departments the answer given was the hospital automatly prints a bill and this letter and sends them out. they told me to tear the bill and letter up as i had already paid. when i said this was a bad practice they just said o well.

This shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone. Just another way to bleed the middle class or deny services to the poor. As we all know, the health care system in this country is a national disgrace. However, it will never change until the middle class insists that it change.

This is just the beginning of the scoring craze. At the bottom of it is the realization that each individual is different. It is time that we start dealing COMPLEXITY.

Some of the people in the blog will say that they against medical scoring, and are in favor of insurance scoring.

I believe, even though we are born with some genetic predispositions (which should be scoring neutral), the fact is that there are risk behaviors out there for which people that follow a health best practices shouldn't be responsible.

I believe that we should instead focus on how we're going to score. If it is going to be the error rid process of credit scores than no. If instead they are going to be done with next-generation EVENT-driven-cognitive systems, then yes.

They will capture events (and be able to prove it), that can then be balance by PUBLIC formulas, that will give your score.

FP
M2MSys (www.m2msysonline.com)

I've been concerned that people with certain very narrow interests would try to expand the credit score concept in ways contrary to fundamental American mores. This MedFICO thing seems to be just that. There's no way anybody can deny recognizing the extremely slippery slope here.

Instead the MedFICO should be used to track use of insurance benefits. That way, those of us who use the medical system less would pay lower rates, and those who use it more would pay higher rates. Similar to the "safe driver" clause in auto insurance. I exercise and live a healthy lifestyle... why should I pay the same for medical insurance as someone who choses not to take care of themself?

Healthcare has gone by the wayside, a person must be their on advocate for their health. I have dealt with many and I mean many instances where I have had to be the advocate for my husband, my mother, my sister and my father. Healthcare has become the big money maker, and we have too many people in it for the money, not the satisfaction of knowing they have helped someone. My family has many health issues, and insurance has become almost impossible to pay for. My family has always worked, but I would consider us middle class, and I have seen where the bill started out at $47,000, but when the insurance company got thru with it was only $24,000. Now why is it the hospital can afford to cut $23,000 for the insurance company, because they have a contract with them, but for the average person they can not cut the bill that much. The government needs to step in and put caps on what can be charged, and get a uniform healthcare system for everyone, so everyone can receive healthcare peroid. We pay for their healthcare and they receive the best healthcare possible, why is it us taxpayers can not expect the same treatment.

Whatever happened to the oath that doctors take to treat you regardless of race, etc? This should include your ability to pay. It looks to me like they are putting a price on your life. If you can't pay you're worth nothing so youdon't deserve to live any longer or at least not have thequality of life that the rich do.

this is BS, should not be allowed ! The idea of Med scores is totally not right. First we have credit reports then they add scores to them, then all the insurance companies (auto, and homehowners) now use our scores to rate our insurance premiums, some people cant even get homeowners insurance because of scores. Now they want Medical scores too. What next ? The cost of medical insurance is already way out of line, I cant imagine the cost for someone that has no scores or has low scores. Lets face it how many times have you had a medical bill that has gone to collections and it wasnt even yours, or your medical insurance didnt pay a bill and you were not aware of it. This is getting way out of control.

This is horrible. I will give you an idea of what could happen. This past summer I had a knee operated on. I have insurance through the county I work for and I pay a huge premium. The day after my surgery, I got T-boned by a guy in a truck running a red light. Now because of this, my knee has never been fixed. My health insurance now says this was a result of the car accident, and the car insurance claims it was pre-existing and they wont pay. This has been a 9 month fight. I had full coverage car insurance, the wreck was not my fault, and I have health insurance yet I cannot go to a doctor. How in the world has this been fair to the consumer who has been paying insurance her whole life. If this happens it will destroy the little people who are barely making above poverty and not getting a break from anyone. This is very wrong, I get a hate letter from a hospital everyday. This is ruining my credit.
So am I suppose to keep paying insurance when my credit isnt going to let me go to the hospital?

I am not completely opposed to it because I know that I pay my bills. Given teh number of inunsured people who the rest of us end up footing the bill for this may be a good idea. It could actualy bring the cost of healthcare down becuase they could deny the more expensive services to those who cannot pay for them. Then the rest of us don't have to pay for them either!! Besides, half the people who say they cannot afford it can afford a new car or a new TV, rims, Stereo system, etc. If they really wanted insurance they could get it!!

This is absolute bull. Are we going to bring back the debtors prisons too? My guess is the vast majority of people that have had a major medical issue have had some problems paying the enormous bills that come along with it. Most people can't come up with the thousands of dollars often left after insurance pays in 60 days, let alone those without insurance. We as consumers can't let this happen. We need to start to fight back in this country as they try to take away more and more of our liberties.

Corporate America needs to fall flat on its butt before it stops raping the citizens of their dignity.
Who needs them anyway ?

If we adopted a tax payer financed government run universal health coverage plan as exists in Canada and most European countries we would see several things happen. (1) Taxes would go up, (2) overall health would stay the same or rise even, (3) doctors and other health professionals would fight the enactment of such a plan because their pay would go down, (4) health insurance companies would fight the the enactmant of such a plan because they would go out of business, (5) medical malpractice lawyers would fight the enactment because they would find it harder to sue publically hired medical staffs, (6) the pharmaceutical industry will fight the enactment because they will not be able to price gouge on medications, ie. one pill for a well known migraine relief medication going for $25. (7) congress would hold hearings before the legislation was passed and be influenced by lobbying and contributions from the medical, legal, and insurance industries, (8) the plan would never be passed due to congress not being able to get past the influence of big business. ..... Therefore, even considering such a plan is simply a matter of mental self amusemment. Having said all of the above, we must then deal with reality. We are in the grip of big influential industries. Profit is king. Anything these industries can do to make a profit will be allowed and the man on the street is powerless to stop it. In fact, because the man on the street plays the stock market and wants the dividend checks rolling in, without these industries making huge profits the man on the street would not invest in the stock market. If you need a bit of proof, just look at what the insurance industry was able to do to Medicare. Instead of the needy getting the coverage they need, the insurance corp presidents take home huge yearly paychecks and have huge retirement and severance bonuses. ..... Why am I stating the obvious? ..... Because, no matter how much you might whine about a medical FICO, if it will benefit the profit margine of one of the influential industries then it will happen and there is not a darn thing the man on the street can do about it other than whine.

Wow what a nightmare. Oil crisis, Housing crisis, now a potential Healthcare crisis. Looks like they've got us coming, and going. I'm afraid to ask but feel it's necessary, what next? This is one more example why it's so important to vote to keep these morons from making such drastic descisions.

I am not completely opposed to it because I know that I pay my bills. Given teh number of inunsured people who the rest of us end up footing the bill for this may be a good idea. It could actualy bring the cost of healthcare down becuase they could deny the more expensive services to those who cannot pay for them. Then the rest of us don't have to pay for them either!! Besides, half the people who say they cannot afford it can afford a new car or a new TV, rims, Stereo system, etc. If they really wanted insurance they could get it!!

The problem with a program like this...people are quick to accuse and assume that it will be used for something other than the intended purpose. If the score is not checked until AFTER a medical visit, then obviously it won't affect the quality of service the patient receives since no doctor will know that score. The whole Medical Code of Ethics comment doesn't fit, it's one of those quick accusations where people don't read the facts and assume that the phsyicians will know the score and change the service accordingly. If that happens, then the program is immoral and goes against medical ethics codes. But if it is in fact used for what it is being designed for, then it makes perfect sense to implement it, as the quality of service to all patients is controlled largely by the ability of people to pay. Knowing risks at initial billing time allows the hospital to plan payment methods and potentially offer solutions to the patient with ways to pay that better suit the individual.

"America is being sold down the river. In 20 years the founding fathers would be hard pressed to recognize the nation they founded."

20 Years? They wouldn't even begin to recognize it today.

Why do you think the doctors will have any control over this? If the ordinary patient was aware of how many rules and regulations govern medical care now, both from the government and the insurance companies, maybe they would see how much a doctor has to contend with.....he or she no longer has complete control over medical care. Patients also must realize that to provide medical care is costly and doctors run businesses and must make adequate earnings in order to keep their businesses open. There are many patients who run out on their medical obligations thinking this is only a medical bill..........well that is still their responsibility to pay. Just as with any other industry, there are problem doctors, but the vast majority of them believe in their Hippocratic oath and provide the best medical care they can.

If this boondoggle becomes a reality, it will open a whole new area of litigation when a healthcare provider or insurance company does not pay or credit your account and thus wrongly ruins your "medical credit". The patient will have no choice but to sue them under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and possibly a plethora of other state and federal consumer credit protection statutes. We'll see how well they like this system when that occurs.

Because hospitals, dr's offices, and laboratories have different fee schedules for medicare, each different insurance company, and seem to multiply those numbers by 3 when charging an individual, we had better start writing our congressmen, federal and state, our governors, and our attorney generals now to get some laws in place to govern this medfico before they can start using it.

Our metro area is overrun with doctors from every nation imaginable. The competition is keen, the competance is questionable. Americans are accustomed to challenging bills before paying questionable medical bills. Should we now be scared into compliance to paying any bill sent to us?

This just keeps getting better and better!

Man, I think we all should move to Canada!

How much more can the consumer take?

So let me get this sraight, if I default on my heart transplant, I'll never get a morgage or a car loan?!

Looks to me as though big business has got us right where they want us!

This is just one more reason why health care should not be left under the control of for-profit, private "insurance" companies, who care nothing about the population's healthcare.

It's well beyond time that we had a national and free government-run, national healthcare provider system that makes private health "insurance" a boutique product, and that has, as a long-term goal, removal of ALL insurance companies in the business of healthcare.

Nip this in the bud ! It is predicated on a public companys ability to gather private information. Obviously they are using illegally obtained information but hiding behind the inability of the government to get convictions on them or the lack of goverment interest in doing so.

In any case, there is no treatment going on in hospital ERs now. Life threatening illnesses are prempted for specialist care that uninsured can not recieve now. Mainly patient pain control is administered and then they are sent packing to their primary care doc, if one exists, at which point they are in limbo again. The system is simply retooling their obligations to meet the uninsureds goal of actually cashing in on the inability of a hospital to turn them away.

Our metro area is overrun with doctors from every nation imaginable. The competition is keen, the competance is questionable. Americans are accustomed to challenging bills before paying questionable medical bills. Should we now be scared into compliance to paying any bill sent to us?

From my experience, I KNOW that most hospitals do not even take the time and effort to track their accounts receivable. Most hospitals, even large ones still rely on "shoebox accounting". Maybe if the hospital administrators took the time to actually track the accounts receivable, they would not have to resort to fallible instruments like a pseudo credit score to enforce payment. The few hospitals that have begun to track accounts receivable resolved their solvency problems in a short time. Maybe it is time for hospitals and their administrators to clean up their own act before applying draconian measures to patients.

Yup, and you can bet it wont be seperate from your normal Fico, one will adversely affect the other no doubt. This is just another scheme to make some money at the expense of the consumer and an already failing system of credit.

Once again people do not read the entire article or read something that is not there. There will be no denial of service or even a reduction in service.

How this can work for profit. I see 100 patients a day. I need to assume that they will all pay me. So at $100 per visit at the end of the day I should have $10,000 to cover expenses. I have no way of knowing that 20% of patients do not pay for services. So, as it takes 90 days to get paid I operate off the predicted bottom line of 10,000 a day.

The days payments finally all come in, leaving me with $8000 because 20% did not pay me for services rendered.

Now imagine I can pay a company that will let me know the day after services are rendered that I will lose 20% from the previous day. I pay this company $100 a day to help me determine that my books will be off by $2000 a day. I can also anticipate filing for bad debt reimbursement from the government or can even begin letting the patient know about alternate payment such as community service plans.

So, instead of not being able to pay the bills and going bankrupt the hospital will be able to know in advance about probable payment and reimbursement. This is forecasting and is a common practice. A hospital cannot deny services even if they know from past experience that they will lose money on a person, laws such as EMTALA ensure patient safety in cases like this.

So, it can be profitable and beneficial to everyone while not identifying a person as bad debt and possibly endangering services rendered.

'Quality' health care is already based on a person's ability to pay. I witnessed this first hand.

How is that 1.5 percent?

Is this what people get so highly paid for...to sit behind a desk & come up with a newer idea to hurt the American consumer even more? I can't believe that everything we do revolves around some computer generated score that is made up by an overpaid employee that doesn't realize what is already happening to the American people & the economy. Where are the morals & ethics of the medical profession? Doesn't anyone just plain old fashioned "care" anymore about our society & what's becoming of this country?

This is asinine. As if the medical industry need another reason to screw people. I have two words: Socialized Medicine!

This is asinine. As if the medical industry need another way to screw people. I have two words: Socialized Medicine!

A previous comment noted the topic of illegal aliens. I do not agree that the "silver lining" of this proposed scenario is that illegal aliens might not receive care... that thought actually scares the hell out of me. Though I'm about as lily white as they come, I would hate to see a world where fear of legal sanctions kept women from having babies safely, children from getting vaccinations, and where the divide between the haves and have nots gaps even further.

If this scenario does come to fruition, it could be as much of a debacle as the low income project housing system was. Kudos to those who call for at least basic nationalized health care for all, and shame on those who choose not to constructively fix our healthcare problems. I understand that hospitals need money to pay for services, supplies, etc., but this is not the answer.

Medical Code Of Ethics??? This is not about Physicians this is about HMO's, CEO's and Hospitals. Do you really think that the answer is a National Healthcare System? We as American's are used to receiving good quality healthcare with state of the art equipment in a very timely fashion/ with or without healthcare coverage. If we do not like the first results or the physician that we chose we are free to go for a second/third opinion. With the election year approaching it is imperative to get educated on exactly what a "National Healthcare System" really is. How long are you willing to wait for a diagnostic test or to be seen by a specialist? Check the reports that are posted for Canada. It is no surprise so many people from countries with National Healthcare Systems come to America for healthcare treatment. It is obvious that something is broken in the system. Let's focus again on the insurance companies that over inflate your premiums, decide what medical care you can receive, and pay physicians and hospitals less every year. I can name one CEO of a major insurance company that just purchased controlling interest in a professional hockey team and also owns an exotic animal zoo. Look at the salaries of the major officers of BC/BS. It is time we get all of the information and not just a slanted view to make a story sound good.

I HAD SURGERY ON MY LEG OVER 6 MONTHS AGO. I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED A BILL, EVEN AFTER NUMEROUS CALLS TO THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE AND IT STILL HAS NOT BEEN FILED ON MY INSURANCE. I HAVE NO GRIPE WITH THE DOCTOR HIMSELF, HE WAS GREAT, BUT HIS BILLING DEPARTMENT LEAVES A LOT TO BE DESIRED. I CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT THEM SCORING ANYTHING ON ME!

Medical Code Of Ethics??? This is not about Physicians this is about HMO's, CEO's and Hospitals. Do you really think that the answer is a National Healthcare System? We as American's are used to receiving good quality healthcare with state of the art equipment in a very timely fashion/ with or without healthcare coverage. If we do not like the first results or the physician that we chose we are free to go for a second/third opinion. With the election year approaching it is imperative to get educated on exactly what a "National Healthcare System" really is. How long are you willing to wait for a diagnostic test or to be seen by a specialist? Check the reports that are posted for Canada. It is no surprise so many people from countries with National Healthcare Systems come to America for healthcare treatment. It is obvious that something is broken in the system. Let's focus again on the insurance companies that over inflate your premiums, decide what medical care you can receive, and pay physicians and hospitals less every year. I can name one CEO of a major insurance company that just purchased controlling interest in a professional hockey team and also owns an exotic animal zoo. Look at the salaries of the major officers of BC/BS. It is time we get all of the information and not just a slanted view to make a story sound good.

I can't believe that hospitals and Physicians have just turned into Big Business Instituions. They are totally ammune to human beings. People are only numbers. You receive a bill with generated cost that you have no idea where the amounts even come from. You only know the amounts are generated somewhere. I wish a group of wealthy people would form a MEDICAL Check List for all Hospitals and Physicians. They need to also be held accountable for their cost.

I do agree that people should pay their bills! But there are already people out there that are having to choose between clothing/housing and their medication. So whats next, "okay no eating this week because I have to go to the Dr". I am a Vet, and I believe in this country. I also believe that we, as voters, can and will make the right choice here!

Get the profiteers out of medicine! Single-Payer health care is a must. Private doctors, private hospitals, go to any doctor you want, but all payments would be through a SINGLE PAYER. Truly, this story today about a "credit score" for patients is as disgusting as anything I have read in a long time.

The Us is getting over populated the government is finding ways to kill people off this will hit the poor class hard. Then the middle class becomes poor. Then the rich become middle class the billionares become rich. Governmet then is in total control.If you ever read the Giver this book is almost hitting home to the truth of it all suppose to be fiction to much is comming true. Stop the government stop medfico. We will never have our rights.

John Edwards is the only candidate who is addressing this domination of the US populace by big corporations. It's worth the effort to track down what he has to say on that topic.

The Us is getting over populated the government is finding ways to kill people off this will hit the poor class hard. Then the middle class becomes poor. Then the rich become middle class the billionares become rich. Governmet then is in total control.If you ever read the Giver this book is almost hitting home to the truth of it all suppose to be fiction to much is comming true. Stop the government stop medfico. We will never have our rights.

We have the same thing going on in oregon. No credit score yet but if you owe any money to the hospital and need non-emergency care you will not get it. But be an illegal immigrant and you are treated like a king. With no regard to the fact that you will not pay your bill. This MedFICO thing is just another way for the big healthcare companies to rip you off. I can't believe that the government hasn't stepped in yet to curtail this. Oh I forgot medical companies are one of the biggest lobbying groups in the United States.

Another attempt of big business to deny Americans rights to health care all the while providing free care to illegal aliens, foreign disaster victims and themselves, congressmen included. As a Rita victim who was refused aid for my family and my father who had Alzheimer's, nothing the government and big business amazes me. It is how they can sleep at night that does.

We need to pass a federal law that prohibits this practice, after the jackass Bush leaves office. Can't be done sooner because Bush only listens to corporate donors and no doubt the hopelessly corrupt racist "Doctor" Senator Frist will be in favor of such a system, and Bush has no mind of his own. After all, Tennessee is on the forefront of sticking it to the public.

As a Critical Care RN I don't know what the right answer is.
I can tell you we continually see the same patients that do not take care of themselves, yet want the highest quality (and most expensive) care available.
Many patients' (most that cannot pay) with many comorbidities undergo surgeries that may lengthen their lives three to six months at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where do we draw the line? A huge percentage of healthcare dollars and overspending is used within the last six months of our patients' lives.
We have the technology to keep people alive for much longer then ever before, but is it always appropriate? As long as everyone is entitled to whatever extent of care they want no matter what the cost, expect our healthcare sytem to be overburdened and costs to continue to rise! Those that complain about high taxes and a crumbling social security system must not complain unless they are willing to make some tough decisions limiting expensive end of life care.

We are human beings - not scores, whether it be FICO scores and/or MEDIscores. Scores do not define who we are. They may provide a snapshot of our lives but they don't define us as human beings. We are not numbers people and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Medical Code Of Ethics??? This is not about Physicians this is about HMO's, CEO's and Hospitals. Do you really think that the answer is a National Healthcare System? We as American's are used to receiving good quality healthcare with state of the art equipment in a very timely fashion/ with or without healthcare coverage. If we do not like the first results or the physician that we chose we are free to go for a second/third opinion. With the election year approaching it is imperative to get educated on exactly what a "National Healthcare System" really is. How long are you willing to wait for a diagnostic test or to be seen by a specialist? Check the reports that are posted for Canada. It is no surprise so many people from countries with National Healthcare Systems come to America for healthcare treatment. It is obvious that something is broken in the system. Let's focus again on the insurance companies that over inflate your premiums, decide what medical care you can receive, and pay physicians and hospitals less every year. I can name one CEO of a major insurance company that just purchased controlling interest in a professional hockey team and also owns an exotic animal zoo. Look at the salaries of the major officers of BC/BS. It is time we get all of the information and not just a slanted view to make a story sound good.

What you can try to do about this is, contact your local Congressman/women. Tell your friends to contact them, then maybe they can put some legislation in place to try to protect us.

What happened to the "OATH" doctors take when recieving their license to practice? If Hospitals and doctors check your credit before treating you it can become a matter of life & death due to a 20 dollar debt that you owe.

This needs to stop, and this is why medical plans and care should be handled the way it is in Canada. FREE to only legal residence. Those that are not legally here should not be allowed to utilize any services from the United States of America.

This TERRIFIES me! I had a few trips to the hospital last year for an as yet un-diagnosed/un-cured problem. I had CIGNA insurance at the time. I paid my co-pays every time I went to the doc. or hosp. and there were many occasions that the hospital itself did not calculate my share correctly so I ended up receiving bills in the mail. I paid these in a timely fashion. End of story right? NO, they (the hospital) are coming after me on a daily basis to pay for the bills I have ALREADY paid! They are even attempting to have me pay for things the insurance already covered! What gives? Poor accounting and under-educating idiots in their billing department. I don't have the time to mess with the issue and I don't have the money to pay a lawyer to straighten it out. I have just been ignoring it because I know that I am in the right. If I have a score set for my medical care I will be screwed because of their ineptness. Soooo looking forward to it.

It's just another way to control the public. Today's leaders in many ways are no different than the HITLER era. It's control in different ways. We are all taxpayers and we will be lucky to have 20% of our hard earned money for our living.. We are well on our way to a world dictatorship. If you think this is too far out - too many predictions, too many signs - That good Ol'Book (The Bible) should be dusted off and read about now.

Just what we need...Another credit score. This one could effect the need for medical care. I think we as the consumers should see the credit reports of the doctors, hospitals and labs that we use. I for one have only ever had a problem with collections because of medical bills...#1 a provider put me in the computer twice I paid the bill, there computer said I didn't. I was in the computer twice they sent me to collections. I was never notified by mail or phone to corret this. I eventually hired a lawyer to fix the problem (it was a $60.00 bill). #2 I had a mamogram paid the co pay but the clinic sent my film to another facility for further readings never told me. Then I was told I never paid the co pay but I had no knowledge of my films being sent to another facility I never got a bill and they sent me to collections this was a $25.00 bill I would have paid it gladly. Now I am spending hours trying to clear this up. I have had a good credit history for 30 years the only thing that I have ever found on my credit reports are the two problems I just described they were not my fault but the fault of the providers.. so what your telling me is I'll be able to buy a car, house etc. but not get the medical care I might need in the future...

"Just two questions. Will illegal aliens be assigned a MedFICO score too? Will this put a clamp-down on them getting free healthcare? I sure hope so!"

Unfortunately no, because it doesn't affect patient care or who is seen. The score is only seen by the biller after service once a bill has been created, sometimes a few days after a person leaves the hospital even. If there is no record of the person even being in the country, then the lack of a credit score will only be apparent after the person has already received their medical care, same as now, once it is too late to cause any changes.

BLAME ONLY OURSELVES, THE ONES WHO CONTINUE TO PREACH "WHY VOTE, IT DOSN'T MATTER" THIS AND MANY OTHER "SMART IDEAS" AWAIT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC BOTH FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN CORPORATE GREED AND AS LONG AS THE "RIGHT" POLITICIANS ARE VOTED INTO OFFICE THE GREED WILL CONTINUE THIS GREAT NATION WAS NOT FOUNDED ON A CAPITALIST BELIEF THIS NATION WAS FOUNDED BY PERSONS SEEKING TO STOP TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ANOTHER "SMART IDEA" TO TAX OUR POCKETS IS JUST THAT, TAXATION AND AS YOU KNOW WE HAVE NO REPRESENTATION IN WASHINGTON.
GOD HELP US BECAUSE THE POLITICIANS ARE NOT.

Medical Code Of Ethics??? This is not about Physicians this is about HMO's, CEO's and Hospitals. Do you really think that the answer is a National Healthcare System? We as American's are used to receiving good quality healthcare with state of the art equipment in a very timely fashion/ with or without healthcare coverage. If we do not like the first results or the physician that we chose we are free to go for a second/third opinion. With the election year approaching it is imperative to get educated on exactly what a "National Healthcare System" really is. How long are you willing to wait for a diagnostic test or to be seen by a specialist? Check the reports that are posted for Canada. It is no surprise so many people from countries with National Healthcare Systems come to America for healthcare treatment. It is obvious that something is broken in the system. Let's focus again on the insurance companies that over inflate your premiums, decide what medical care you can receive, and pay physicians and hospitals less every year. I can name one CEO of a major insurance company that just purchased controlling interest in a professional hockey team and also owns an exotic animal zoo. Look at the salaries of the major officers of BC/BS. It is time we get all of the information and not just a slanted view to make a story sound good.

This concept is ridiculous on so many levels. Healthcare costs are astronomical. Why doesn't someone take the time to deal with healthcare costs and insurance premiums?? Instead, THIS is what people are spending their time on? What a sad example of how greed has crept into every area of society.

Fair Issac Corp., developer of the FICO credit score, is one of several investors in Healthcare Analytics, the Massachusetts start-up that is developing the hospital risk tool. Another investor is Tenet Healthcare Corp, one of the nation's largest hospital operators. Stephen Farber, who resigned as chief financial officer of Tenet in 2004, is the CEO of Healthcare Analytics.

What's "fair" about Fair Isacc Corporation? Boycott 'em!

FUCUO or FICO? I'm confused.

Tenet Healthcare Corp? Is that the same outfit that spawned the last fellow fouling up the CIA?

------------------------

We need universal Health Care. We need it run by the government. We need to run our own government. We need to stop the rich (Yes, that's your neighbor across town who is CEO of JerkSHAT Corporation Cartel and your other neighbor across town who is CEO of JackSHUT Corporation Cartel -- it's that simple, they're people, and so are we, and we're competing for health care and other basic American rights to control our lives) from owning our country, our constitution, our health care system (which sucks, of course), our bodies, and our lives.

It's the rich versus the not so rich. It always will be -- as long as humans are on the earth, some will want more material things and others will want more spiritual things, hence Rich and Poor.

F888 the Bush Takeover of the American Government. F888 the Republican Party. They've become nothing short of a monarchy and corrupted our constitution and democracy. F888 'em harder than they're F888ing us.

Doesn't this violate HIPAA??? These people have NO BUSINESS knowing which doctors we see, or for what.

Where are the credit scores for these companies? We live in fear of these big companies because our livelihood depends on our credit, and yet we are making money FOR them. I'm tired of these companies not providing quality services and not being penalized. FICO should work on a system for companies, and if your score is too low you have to shut down/change management/pay a fine.

BLAME ONLY OURSELVES, THE ONES WHO CONTINUE TO PREACH "WHY VOTE, IT DOSN'T MATTER" THIS AND MANY OTHER "SMART IDEAS" AWAIT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC BOTH FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN CORPORATE GREED AND AS LONG AS THE "RIGHT" POLITICIANS ARE VOTED INTO OFFICE THE GREED WILL CONTINUE THIS GREAT NATION WAS NOT FOUNDED ON A CAPITALIST BELIEF THIS NATION WAS FOUNDED BY PERSONS SEEKING TO STOP TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ANOTHER "SMART IDEA" TO TAX OUR POCKETS IS JUST THAT, TAXATION AND AS YOU KNOW WE HAVE NO REPRESENTATION IN WASHINGTON.
GOD HELP US BECAUSE THE POLITICIANS ARE NOT.

I have a bad credit score and have many medical problems. I am sorry for having health issues that I can't pay for. I work in a factory and pay for insurance ($200) dollars a month an annual payment of $2,400. I have worked for my insurance for 8 years for a total of $19,200. I think I paid for my medical problems. Maybe the congress can stop helping other countries for awhile and give us free health care. Instead of making the decision on who lives and who dies.

Everyone responding to this needs to contact your state representative RIGHT NOW and let them know that you are opposed to this.

The hospitals should worry more about the quality of their care and their billing. I am sure there are hospital bills that get paid that are incorrect. I just think this is another example of corporate greed. This will really help the state of health care!!!!

It started with insurance co. running credit checks for car/home policies. Now health insurance co. will follow suit, as well as doctors, dentist, eye care, hospitals. What's next, the pharmacy will have to run a credit check before your prescription can be refilled. It is all about running up insurance rates, so these co. can post gigantic profits. These credit reports are notorious for bad information, and just try getting them corrected. Credit reports were supposed to be used for getting loans from a financial insitution. The problem is that our elected officals (state & fed.) do not represent the citizens of this county any longer, they have been bought and paid for by lobbist and special intrest.

Sure, everybody's up in arms about this now, but the same thing happened with automobile and homeowners insurance about 10 years ago. Insurers are allowed to use your credit history to determine whether or not they will insure you, and how much premium to charge. There is NO valid data in existence which supports the idea that the amount of debt you carry (or don't carry) is an indicator of your likelihood of causing a traffic accident, yet this practice have been going on for YEARS and like the compliant sheep we are, Americans have laid down and accepted this immoral practice which exists for one reason and one reason only--to line the pockets of insurance executives.

Now the same group, giddy with excitement over the incalculable profits yet to come, is going to do the same thing with medical insurance. You can howl about it all you want, BUT IT WILL HAPPEN because we will let it happen.

It's just another way to control the public. Today's leaders in many ways are no different than the HITLER era. It's control in different ways. We are all taxpayers and we will be lucky to have 20% of our hard earned money for our living.. We are well on our way to a world dictatorship. If you think this is too far out - too many predictions, too many signs - That good Ol'Book (The Bible) should be dusted off and read about now.

Sure, everybody's up in arms about this now, but the same thing happened with automobile and homeowners insurance about 10 years ago. Insurers are allowed to use your credit history to determine whether or not they will insure you, and how much premium to charge. There is NO valid data in existence which supports the idea that the amount of debt you carry (or don't carry) is an indicator of your likelihood of causing a traffic accident, yet this practice have been going on for YEARS and like the compliant sheep we are, Americans have laid down and accepted this immoral practice which exists for one reason and one reason only--to line the pockets of insurance executives.

Now the same group, giddy with excitement over the incalculable profits yet to come, is going to do the same thing with medical insurance. You can howl about it all you want, BUT IT WILL HAPPEN because we will let it happen.

I have been a Consumer Banker for the past 26 years and have had Credit Scoring pushed at me by Fair Isaac. Other Bankers bought the sales pitch and gave loans to people with high scores without verifying income and at high Loan to values sometimes allowing zero down payments! They call it a "sub-prime" lending mess but that is not a correct name for it as many people with reasonably good credit are caught up in the mess and about to lose the homes they live in. It is not a sub prime lending mess it is a failure on the part of Scoring Companies to correctly predict repayment probabilities. The scores were simply not as "predictive" as everyone thought. Scoring should never be used to make a lending deci