In the hospital business they call it a “wallet biopsy.” A growing number of medical centers are using sophisticated software that digs into patients’ finances to help determine whether they will receive free or discounted care.
The procedure, which is not understood by most patients or even many doctors, generally doesn’t come into play when there is an emergency. But it has raised eyebrows for several reasons: Hospital administrators are looking at patient data—credit scores, credit-card limits, and 401(k) balances—not usually associated with treatment decisions. . . .
Debbie Maupin, 41, already has felt the procedure’s sting. The Dallas resident fractured her skull, neck, and back in a car crash in April 2005. Parkland Health &
Hospital System gave her free care worth more than $100,000 because her job as a mortgage adviser offered no health insurance. When she returned in June 2006 for a scheduled CAT scan, however, Parkland told her she no longer qualified as a charity case “because my credit score was too high,” she says. A hospital financial counselor, she adds, refused to show her a copy of her credit report. Unable to work because of her injuries, she says she’s “living off borrowed money from my father and friends . . . I have nothing in the bank.” She never got the scan.

1. Absolutely. Hospitals should not have to provide free care to someone who has money stashed away in the bank or 401(k) plans. This is a good way to detect if someone is lying or trying to “game” the system.

2. Absolutely not. A hospital has no business accessing private information about patients without their knowledge.
3. Yes, under three stipulations:

(1) The patient gives permission.

(2) The patient gets to see the report, and

(3) Credit scores are not used as the sole criteria to make decisions about getting care.
4. Invent other options.