How to

Defend

Yourself:

1.Register your case with the Consejo de Latinos Unidos.

2.Request a copy of the itemized statement from the hospital via telephone.

3. Request a copy of the UB-92 or UB-04 from the hospital in writing. Send the appropriate letter to the hospital or bill collector.

4. Make copies

5. Mail copies to hospital, collection agency, and credit bureaus via certified mail with return receipt.

6. Save a copy for your records.

 Rampant Overcharging:

"Almost everybody knows that a hospital stay can be hazardous to your financial health if you don't have insurance.

"What isn't so well known is that hospitals charge the highest prices to those who don't have insurance. In other words, those least able to pay are charged the most. In a system riddled with inequities, this may be the most egregious...

"Studies show an uninsured person who is not backed by the muscle of a pool is billed three, four, five, sometimes as much as ten times more than an insurance company whose patient has the exact same treatment."

~ Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Journalists Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele from their book, "Critical Condition," released October 4, 2004

Our investigation has uncovered:

1. Price gouging - many hospitals bill uninsured patients 3 to 4 times what they'd accept as payment from insurance. Examples
2. Hospitals are merciless with the uninsured - they take homes, savings, ruin credit, and garnish wages all to receive the outrageously high prices they charge the uninsured.
3. Hospitals make big profits from the uninsured - the typical bill to the uninsured represents a price that's 3 to 4 times the hospital's reported costs

- Report from the Consejo de Latinos Unidos
5835 West 74th Street
East Los Angeles, CA 90023