UMC Reporting Unpaid Medical Bills To Credit Bureaus

El Paso’s University Medical Center has undergone a slew of changes in recent years, from an expanded emergency room to a new Women’s Pavilion and a new neighbor in the El Paso Children’s Hospital.

But at its heart, UMC remains a county hospital that is tax-funded, nonprofit and charged with providing care for charity and indigent patients who can’t always pay.

But what about those patients who can afford to shell out a little more?

ABC-7 was able to get a hold of UMC financial records for fiscal year 2010. KVIA viewer and local government watchdog Mike Rooney requested figures from 2009 and 2008.

In 2008, the records show UMC charged self-pay patients , or non-charity patients, a little more than $123 million. The hospital took in about $13 million in payments, according to the documents.

That means for every dollar charged in 2008, UMC received approximately 10 cents.

In 2009, the charges went down to about $120 million, with payments coming in at slightly over $9 million. That’s about 7.5 cents per dollar charged.

In 2010, self-pay charges went up again to approximately $133 million; payments went down once more to under $9 million, translating to roughly 6.7 cents per dollar charged.

UMC officials said that these figures continually change as patients pay their balances.

ABC-7 sat down with three UMC executives, including Senior Director of Revenue Cycle Pat Rosenthal, Director of Patient Financial Services Josie Cox and Chief Financial Officer Michael Nunez.

When asked, all three said there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to bill collection at the county hospital.

Nunez said recent cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, both in Austin and Washington, have made reimbursement “challenging.”

UMC representatives brought that same argument before the El Paso commissioners court in late September. Commissioners voted unanimously to increase the county hospital district’s tax rate for the first time in 22 years, raising it one cent per every $100 in property value.

Nunez said approaching taxpayers was a last resort and is not a long-term solution.

The CFO said that instead, the hospital has set up a discount three-year payment program to be offered to non-charity patients who live in El Paso County.

“The more they have the ability to pay, we’re asking them to pay more,” Nunez told ABC-7.

Cox said patients who qualify to for enrollment in the program sign contracts. If they default on a payment or do not make one, the account will be sent to a collection agency.

Sending to “collections” is not new at University Medical Center. What is new about the program is a private hospital approach.

“A default payment or nonpayment for services rendered will be reported to the credit bureau,” Cox said.

Nunez told ABC-7 that the payment program went into effect Oct. 1. He said when he compared October 2011’s collection numbers to those of the year before, UMC was already ahead by $110,000.

Nunez said the hospital will keep an eye on the numbers from month to month.

“The proof will be in the pudding,” he said.