Free Assistance in Spanish for Latino Patients With High Hospital Bills – MarketWatch

K.B. Forbes, a leading national healthcare advocate and Executive Director of the Consejo de Latinos Unidos, a public charity that assists and educates Latinos and others, announced today the launch of a new, free nationwide assistance program in Spanish for Latinos with high hospital bills.
The key aspect of the program is to negotiate lower hospital bills for patients in debt and qualify them for any available discounts or charity care. The services are free. The program is fully funded and run by the Fairness Foundation, a public charity based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“Many Latinos have no idea they are being price gouged by a hospital,” said Forbes. “Now there is a free program in Spanish to help negotiate reasonable balances and payment plans. The anxiety so many victims of hospital price gouging face is being replaced with real concern, real help, real discounts, and real solutions for these patients.”
According to the Fairness Foundation, patients who have utilized their free services have received significant discounts — in some cases 90 percent off the original balances. In one cited case, a hospital patient ended up paying $6,300 on a hospital bill that was originally over $66,000 due to the successful efforts of the Fairness Foundation.
Spanish speaking patients in debt with a hospital are encouraged to register on the Internet at www.ayudagratis.net or call 1-800-742-3441.
Last November, Forbes was named by Health Leaders magazine as one of the top 20 people making a difference in making healthcare better in the United States.
Forbes is the author of nine investigative reports, including six on hospital price gouging and aggressive collection practices. The investigative reports and efforts by Forbes and the Consejo provoked several U.S. congressional probes into hospital price gouging abuses by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. “

• Photos: Latin Music Superstar Luis Fonsi to Serve as Celebrity Ambassador for the 6th Annual Thanks and Giving(R) Campaign to Support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital(R)
• 3 doctors and a nurse have been arrested for allegedly selling newborns after telling mothers their babies had died at a private hospital in Mexico City
• Dr. Eliscer Guzman From The Mount Sinai Hospital Among Comunilife Honorees
• Mexican Illegal Immigrant (Mario Vera) Badly Beaten In Brooklyn – Devastated Wife Asks For Witnesses To Come Forward; Woodhull Hospital Under Fire Over Initial Treatment – (yet another apparent hate crime called “bias attack” – $12k reward for info) + video
• Alejandra Guzmán: “Estoy de maravilla” – Desde el hospital, la cantante rompió el silencio y aseguró que, aunque tiene mucho dolor, se está recuperando satisfactoriamente
• Former Venezuelan president Jaime Lusinchi has been hospitalized due to a gastric ulcer in Miami
• Unequal access: Hispanic children rarely get top-notch care for brain tumors
• Assailants armed with assault rifles burst into a hospital in the northern Mexican state of Durango and killed three men being treated for gunshot wounds
• Comedian Paul Rodriguez is still in a hospital in Washington D.C. but there is at least one good sign that he’s getting better — he’s texting.
• Singer Mercedes Sosa Hospitalized in Argentina
• Comedian Paul Rodriguez was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Washington, D.C. after complaining of severe abdominal pain.
• Mercedes Sosa, quien acaba de cosechar tres nominaciones para los Grammy Latinos 2009, se encuentra hospitalizada con pronóstico reservado y asistida por un respirador artificial,
• Chicago study shows swine flu sends more blacks, Hispanics to hospital
• Hospital staff focuses on bilingual health care – Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, Illinois
• Children’s Hospital Boston is making a concerted effort to reach out to Latino families, which comprise 33% of its patient base.
• Patients in Puerto Rico die at statistically higher rates from heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia than those admitted to mainland hospitals, a USA TODAY analysis of new government data shows.
• Arizona hospital lures wealthy Mexican moms-to-be
• Two prominent Miami-Dade brothers are scheduled to surrender to federal authorities Monday afternoon to begin their nine-year prison sentences for orchestrating a kickback scheme involving millions of dollars in contracts with a Kendall hospital. – Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes
• Nearly 50 people wounded in Cuidad Juárez in 2008 received medical care at El Paso’s Thomason Hospital and racked up medical bills totaling about $1.4 million
• Hispanics Hospitalized at Higher Rates for Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations than Whites