By Hans Eisenbeis
What’s Happening
• A new Web-based service called IOUSOS allows consumers and their caregivers to negotiate pay-downs on old medical bills. Using an auction-like technology, patients and hospitals can arrive at new terms with lower expenses and more lenient repayment schedules.
• The service was announced at Finovate Startup ’09, the financial services industry’s conference showcasing technological innovations.
What This Means to Business
• Some observers say the Great Recession is just a warm-up to a catastrophic financial crash driven by health care costs. That may be a grim diagnosis, but it is true that 50 percent of all bankruptcies are caused by outstanding medical bills.
• More than 40 million Americans are uninsured, but many millions more are underinsured. That means they’re paying a larger chunk of sometimes massive medical bills.
• Most consumers don’t want to be deadbeats when it comes to paying their bills, but sometimes they simply can't afford to pay them off in total. A high tech collection service that allows them to pay something is a win for patients and a win for hospitals since a partial payment is better than no payment at all.
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