Hospitals chase private cash as patients urged to use insurance

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Parnell

Article excerpt:

PUBLIC hospitals are aggressively pursuing the private health insurance dollar, enticing patients to bill their treatment to health funds in exchange for taxpayer-funded handouts and benefits. In a move that has outraged private hospitals and health funds, state-run hospitals are not only encouraging patients to elect to be treated privately in the public system, they are also offering to pay their out-of-pocket expenses to sweeten the deal. The Australian has obtained, under Freedom of Information laws, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report marked "strictly private and confidential" that tells one state how to make more money out of the privately insured to relieve pressure on its health budget.

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