San Francisco General Hospital Lacks A Good Way To Deal With Patients Who Are Actually Insured
The hospital exists mostly to serve as the city’s medical safety net, with most of its patients on either on Medicare or Medi-Cal or without insurance completely. The trauma center has no contracts with private insurance companies, so patients who are actually insured can get stuck with astronomical bills.
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF General’s Insured Patients Suffer Further Trauma When Bill Arrives
If you’re shot, stabbed, hit by a car, fall off a roof or suffer any other major injury in San Francisco, you’ll be whisked to San Francisco General Hospital, the only trauma center in the city. ...But you may leave with a very unpleasant side-effect: a shockingly high bill. ...That’s because S.F. General — whose patients are overwhelmingly poor and are on Medicare or Medi-Cal, or have no insurance at all — lacks a good way to deal with patients who are actually insured. (Knight, 1/18)