Indiana Supreme Court Considers Discounted Insurance Rates In Hospitals

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Supreme Court is weighing arguments over whether a hospital has to turn over a list of discounted rates it gives insured patients.

Thomas Frost was a patient at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne for months following a motorcycle accident. He was uninsured and his bill from Parkview was ultimately more than $600,000.

Frost is challenging the reasonableness of those fees and, as part of that challenge, wants the hospital to turn over the discounted rates it charges insured patients.

Parkview attorney Ted Storer says Frost doesn’t have the right to compare his bill to those of other patients in the same hospital. After all, says Storer, there are reasons the hospital provides discounts to patients that are part of a large insurance pool.

“They get discounts because of volumes,” Storer says. “They get discounts because of quick payment. In this particular case, with an uninsured patient, that patient doesn’t provide any of those benefits for the discount back to Parkview Hospital. So in that regard, we don’t think a person who’s not a member of the club should be able to request the benefits of that club.”

The Supreme Court could choose not to rule on the case and simply leave the Court of Appeals ruling in place. The appeals court ruled in favor of Frost.