No Blank Check
- by: Theodore Birnbaum
- recipient: President Obama, ILLINOIS Senators Durbin & Kirk, Congressman Hultgren, Assemblyman Tryon, State Senator McCONNAUGHAY, Governor Quinn
NO BLANK CHECK Petition Overview:
The policy of many doctors & medical facilities (or any service business) to demand a blank check; that refuses to reveal prices before service is received & incurring obligation to pay, is arrogant, unethical and must be outlawed. Undoubtedly the blank check demand inflates the cost of medical care and impoverishes millions of patients who are cash payers, pay a percentage of the bill, receive a service uncovered by insurance, and anyone with increased insurance premiums due to medical care inflation. The blank check demand is often made at a time when the patient is desperately seeking pain relief. To do so is akin to extortion. Should an agreement signed by the patient, under duress, to pay any amount, chosen by the doctor or hospital, be legally binding? The scope of what is legally binding in a contract is NOT unlimited. You cannot sign a contract to have someone murdered. You cannot sign a contract to sell yourself into slavery, a form of unlimited liability. And you should not be able to sign a contract or have one forced upon you to accept the unlimited liability of a blank check. That's unethical because no one has unlimited wealth and it is dishonest to pretend you can pay any amount. When the blank check policy is made illegal it will pressure the medical industry to refrain from its other arrogant and outrageous behaviors:
> Hospitals allow separate billing by associate service providers unknown to the patient and provide NO list of such providers to patient. This encourages fraud and a feeding frenzy by hospital associates who can charge anything they want
> Hospitals and doctors get paid the same amount independent of outcome...whether they helped you or hurt you. This must be at least partially responsible for the scarcity of true cures for chronic conditions. Without the penalty of lower pay for negative outcomes, quack medical care is perpetuated.
> The medical establishment's ignorance and ridicule of the most important factor for good health: good nutrition; while their corrupt alliance with the drug industry and government pushes drugs (for chronic conditions) that offer only symptom relief yet injure the patient in other ways. An example of their disdain for good health : during a recent hospital stay, the heart healthy menu offered to me, included eggs fried in transfat...that's almost criminal for a hospital which is suppose to promote health.
NO BLANK CHECK Petition Detail:
We petition our Federal and state legislators to write laws requiring:
1>Service provider to state price for known service upon consumer's request, at place of business, prior to consumer incurring obligation to pay any amount
2>Service provider to communicate prices for known services upon request via at least one instantaneous medium of provider's choice such as telephone or internet if provider already uses such medium.
3>Service provider to state names and prices of associate providers for known service upon request, at place of business, prior to consumer incurring obligation to pay any amount
4>Service provider to provide names and contact information of associate providers upon request via at least one instantaneous medium of provider's choice such as telephone or internet if provider already uses such medium. Additionally service provider must either communicate associate's prices for known service or associate provider must do so over at least one instantaneous medium of his/her choice if already used by associate provider
5>Service provider must at least state a maximum price to consumer for total of his unknown service and that of any associate providers, at place of business, prior to consumer incurring obligation to pay any amount. This requirement will occur if at the start of service, the type of service is unknown to the provider OR the consumer has not requested a description of the service or its price. The unknown service will have a maximum duration of 24 hours. Any continued service after 24 hours will incur a legal obligation to again state price to consumer. If at the start of service, the type of service is unknown to the provider but later becomes known to the provider and if at that time there is a reasonable opportunity for the consumer to consent to or decline further service, the provider is legally bound to state price of his service and that of any associate providers.
An associate provider is one who works with the service provider but requires separate payment from consumer.
A known service is one known to consumer and that service provider can provide.
An unknown service is one which has not been described to the consumer at the start of service.
The consumer is the consumer of service or his/her representative.
If the consumer visits a service provider website, that shall be considered a request for pricing that must be honored either on the website or other instantaneous medium identified on the website.
Considering that in many crisis & other situations, consumer will not have luxury of considering price at place of service, the price of known services must be revealed via an instantaneous communication medium already used by provider in the conduct of his business.
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