Ethical non-billing?
I was pre-charting for a patient who had previously seen a specialist at another large health system. The last physician noted that the patient had received a surprise bill for the prior visit, adding that the patient was struggling with insurance coverage. So the physician wrote that they would not bill for the subsequent visit to avoid the patient falling into debt and having to leave the clinic. I was also impressed by the colorful language the doctor used, at least relative to how dry most notes are.
What do you think about this response? OTOH I'm all for sticking it to exploitative health systems and insurance companies, and protecting patients from financial ruin from receiving medical care. All the more so for salaried employees of large hospitals who have no incentive to add extraneous codes. OTOH I worry about downstream effects of individual one-offs like this in the absence of any larger movement to fundamentally reform health care. Like, what about everyone else at the hospital who needs to be paid for visits? In other words: how can doctors reliably bill in an ethical manner?