NoneBy Katheryn Houghton and Arielle Zionts, KFF Health News (TNS) Tescha Hawley learned that hospital bills from her son’s birth had been sent to debt collectors only when she checked her credit score while attending a home-buying class. The new mom’s plans to buy a house stalled. Hawley said she didn’t owe those thousands of dollars in debts. The federal government did. Hawley, a citizen of the Gros Ventre Tribe, lives on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. The Indian Health Service is a federal agency that provides free health care to Native Americans, but its services are limited by a chronic shortage of funding and staff. Hawley’s local Indian Health Service hospital wasn’t equipped to deliver babies. But she said staff there agreed that the agency would pay for her care at a privately owned hospital more than an hour away. That arrangement came through the Purchased/Referred Care program, which pays for services Native Americans can’t get through an agency-funded clinic or hospital. Federal law stresses that patients approved for the program aren’t responsible for any of the costs. But tribal leaders, health officials, and a new federal report say patients are routinely billed anyway as a result of backlogs or mistakes from the Indian Health Service, financial middlemen, hospitals, and clinics. The financial consequences for patients can last years. Those sent to collections can face damaged credit scores, which can prevent them from securing loans or require them to pay higher interest rates. The December report , by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, found these long-standing problems contribute to people in Native American-majority communities being nearly twice as likely to have medical debt in collections compared with the national average. And their amount of medical debt is significantly higher. The report found the program is often late to pay bills. In some cases, hospitals or collection agencies hound tribal citizens for more money after bills are paid. Hawley’s son was born in 2003. She had to wait another year to buy a home, as she struggled to pay off the debt. It took seven years for it to drop from her credit report. “I don’t think a person ever recovers from debt,” Hawley said. Hawley, a cancer survivor, still must navigate the referral program. In 2024 alone, she received two notices from clinics about overdue bills. Frank White Clay, chairman of the Crow Tribe in Montana, testified about the impact of wrongful billing during a U.S. House committee hearing in April. He shared stories of veterans rejected for home loans, elders whose Social Security benefits were reduced, and students denied college loans and federal aid. “Some of the most vulnerable people are being harassed daily by debt collectors,” White Clay said. No one is immune from the risk. A high-ranking Indian Health Service official learned during her job’s background check that her credit report contained referred-care debt, the federal report found. Native Americans face disproportionately high rates of poverty and disease , which researchers link to limited access to health care and the ongoing impact of racist federal policies . White Clay is among many who say problems with the referred-care program are an example of the U.S. government violating treaties that promised to provide for the health and welfare of tribes in return for their land. The chairman’s testimony came during a hearing on the Purchased and Referred Care Improvement Act, which would require the Indian Health Service to create a reimbursement process for patients who were wrongfully billed. Committee members approved the bill in November and sent it for consideration by the full House. A second federal bill, the Protecting Native Americans’ Credit Act , would prevent debt like Hawley’s from affecting patients’ credit scores. The bipartisan bill hadn’t had a hearing by mid-December. The exact number of people wrongfully billed isn’t clear, but the Indian Health Service has acknowledged it has work to do. The agency is developing a dashboard to help workers track referrals and to speed up bill processing, spokesperson Brendan White said. It’s also trying to hire more referred-care staff, to address vacancy rates of more than 30%. Officials say problems with the program also stem from outside health providers that don’t follow the rules. Melanie Egorin, an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said at the hearing that the proposed legislation doesn’t include consequences for “bad actors” — health facilities that repeatedly bill patients when they shouldn’t. “The lack of enforcement is definitely a challenge,” she said. But tribal leaders warned that penalties could backfire. Related Articles Health | How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic Health | How to kick back, relax and embrace a less-than-perfect holiday Health | New childhood leukemia protocol is ‘tremendous win’ Health | For some FSA dollars, it’s use it or lose it at year’s end Health | Reporting for duty: Monica Martinez, Kim De Serpa sworn in as newest Santa Cruz County supervisors White Clay told lawmakers that some clinics already refuse to see patients if the Indian Health Service hasn’t paid for their previous appointments. He’s worried the threat of penalties would lead to more refusals. If that happens, White Clay said, Crow tribal members who already travel hours to access specialty treatment would have to go even farther. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report found clinics are already refusing to see any referred-care patients due to the program’s payment problems. The bureau and the Indian Health Service also recently published a letter urging health care providers and debt collectors not to hold patients accountable for program-approved care. White, the Indian Health Service spokesperson, said the agency recently updated the referred-care forms sent to outside hospitals and clinics to include billing instructions and to stress that patients aren’t liable for any out-of-pocket costs. And he said the staff can help patients get reimbursed if they have already paid for services that were supposed to be covered. Joe Bryant, an Indian Health Service official who oversees efforts to improve the referral program, said patients can ask credit bureaus to remove debt from their reports if the agency should have covered their bills. Leaders with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington state helped shape the proposed legislation after their citizens were repeatedly harmed by wrongful billing. Tribal Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson said problems began in 2017, when a regional Indian Health Service office took over the referred-care program from local staff. It “created a domino effect of negative outcomes,” Erickson wrote in a letter to Congress. He said some tribal members whose finances were damaged stopped using the Indian Health Service. Others avoided health care altogether. Responsibility for the Colville Reservation program transferred back to local staff in 2022. Staffers found the billing process hadn’t been completed for thousands of cases, worth an estimated $24 million in medical care, Erickson told lawmakers . Workers are making progress on the backlog and they have explained the rules to outside hospitals and clinics, Erickson said. But he said there are still cases of wrongful billing, such as a tribal member who was sent to collections after receiving a $17,000 bill for chemotherapy that the agency was supposed to pay for. Erickson said the tribe is in the process of taking over its health care facilities instead of having the Indian Health Service run them. He and others who work in Native American health said tribally managed units — which are still funded by the federal agency — tend to have fewer problems with their referred-care programs. For example, they have more oversight over staff and flexibility to create their own payment tracking systems. But some Native Americans oppose tribal management because they feel it releases the federal government from its obligations. Beyond wrongful billing, access to the referred-care program is limited because of underfunding from Congress. The $1 billion budget this year is $9 billion short of the need, according to a committee report by tribal health and government leaders. Donald Warne, a physician and member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, called the proposed legislation a “band-aid.” He said the ultimate solution is for Congress to fully fund the Indian Health Service, which would reduce the need for the referred-care program. Back in Montana, Hawley said she braces for a fight each time she gets a bill that the referral program was supposed to cover. “I’ve learned not to trust the process,” Hawley said. ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Airbnb is most likely to ban OnlyFans Star Lily Phillips from using their service. The development comes after the owner of a flat which Lily Phillips used in London accused her of hiding her plan of having sex with 101 men from him. It is learned that the 23-year-old OnlyFans star courted controversy after she decided to film herself bedding the men in a marathon day session. Notably, in the original Airbnb review, the host said that Lily Phillips was a "lovely guest to host" and kept "to all the house rules" until the owner learned about the incident. It is also learned that Phillips Stay broke a number of rules set by Airbnb, and it is to be seen if the accommodation booking platform bans her in the near future. ‘Is That Where It Comes From?’ Lily Phillips Reveals She Wasn’t Aware About the Possibility of Contracting HIV Before Sleeping With 101 Men in 14 Hours (Watch Video). NEW: AirBnB owner responds after finding out that OF star Lily Phillips slept with 101 men in their home. That must have been rough. In a statement to the Daily Mail, the host said they just found out what happened in their home after giving Phillips a good review. "We have... pic.twitter.com/kmgByM0l6L — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 29, 2024 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter (X), Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
White House says at least 8 US telecom firms, dozens of nations impacted by China hacking campaign
The winners and losers of the Liberals' holiday tax break and cash giveawayA research team at POSTECH has developed a breakthrough technology that analyzes in real-time the deformation of "serpentine" structures, a critical component of stretchable technology, and visualizes the process through color changes. The team, led by Professor Su Seok Choi from the Department of Electrical Engineering, included doctoral candidates Sanghyun Han, Junho Shin, Jiyoon Park, and master's students Hakjun Yang and Seungmin Nam. The study was in the December online edition of the journal . Flexible and deformable electronics have advanced beyond bendable, foldable, rollable, and slidable designs to fully stretchable systems that allow freeform deformation. Stretchable technology is gaining traction in diverse fields, such as displays, sensors, semiconductors, electronic skin, biomimetic robots, and smart clothing. Stretchable technology largely relies on two approaches: creating elastic materials similar to rubber and designing stretchable structures that integrate seamlessly with existing semiconductor, display, electrode, and sensor technologies. In structural stretchable technology, the serpentine interconnect—a wavy, elastic connection—plays a crucial role in providing elasticity to non-stretchable electronic components. Advancing this technology requires a thorough understanding of the structural characteristics and deformation processes during all stages of stretching. Visualizing deformation of serpentine structures in real time Until now, analyzing deformation in serpentine structures was only possible after , such as breaks, had occurred. This meant researchers had to rely on theoretical simulations or limited from previous stretching cycles, hindering insights into structural behavior. The POSTECH team tackled this challenge by leveraging changes in structural color—color shifts that occur at the nanoscale during deformation. Using Chiral Liquid Crystal Elastomer (CLCE), a mechanochromic material that changes color when stretched, they developed a system that enables precise, real-time visualization of deformation in serpentine structures. Furthermore, the team validated the results through theoretical finite element analysis, confirming the technology's potential for optimized design applications. Technological and industrial significance This innovative approach eliminates the need for complex nanofabrication processes and provides a clear, real-time understanding of how serpentine structures deform. By offering actionable design guidelines for optimizing these structures in diverse stretching environments, this technology is poised to fast-track the commercialization of stretchable devices. Professor Choi remarked, "This research opens the door to precise evaluation and design of the connection structures central to stretchable technology." He added that the findings are expected to broaden applications and accelerate commercialization in fields such as displays, semiconductors, sensors, electronic skin, smart clothing, and soft robotics.Celebrating the Festive Season with PU Prime's Christmas Promotion