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From Forbes:Despite many hospitals' reluctance to make the investment, installing an electronic medical records system pays for itself in less than two years, a new study finds.
Such a system was put in place at the University of Rochester Medical Center, N.Y., and recouped its initial cost within 16 months, say the authors of a study in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
When Janet Fredrick got breast cancer in 1998, she never thought she would face bankruptcy because of medical bills: She had insurance.
But her illness dragged out, then her income plunged when she went on disability. By 2005, her co-payments for treatment, including surgery, medications, doctor visits and hospital care, totaled about $8,000.
Such co-payments and deductibles, along with difficult-to-understand policies and complex hospital billing issues, are among the main reasons even people such as Fredrick who have health insurance can face devastating financial costs, says a report out today from The Access Project, an advocacy group that researches medical debt.
