Christopher Cheney, April 25, 2016
The rise of consumerism in healthcare is boosting a practice common in other pricey sectors of the economy: credit checks. 
“We’re seeing more credit checks, and the primary driver is the increased shift in responsibility from the health plan to the individual patient,” says Jeffery Hurst, senior vice president and senior finance officer at Orlando, FL-based Florida Hospital, a member of Adventist Health System. Adventist operates 44 hospitals in 10 states.
The proliferation of high-deductible health plans in the employer-sponsored insurance market and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exchanges is pushing healthcare providers to scrutinize the ability of patients to pay their medical bills, he says. “The industry is struggling, as the patients are, to figure out how we deal with these higher out-of-pocket responsibilities.”