Kept at the hospital on coronavirus fears, now facing large medical bills
The federal government has the authority to quarantine and isolate patients if officials believe them to be a public health threat. These powers, which date back to cholera outbreaks among ship passengers in the late 19th century, are rarely used. They don’t say anything about who pays when the isolation happens in a nongovernmental medical facility — or when they’re brought there by a private ambulance company.
“There is no uniform practice,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. “They do have the powers, but they’ve almost never used them in modern times.”
Few patients have been held in mandatory isolation, but the number is likely to grow if the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States. Eleven cases were confirmed in San Antonio on Friday evening. Earlier in the day, public health authorities identified a second case in California and a first in Oregon in which patients who had not traveled to an affected country became infected.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman declined to comment on whether it would pay the bills of patients kept in mandatory isolation.
Mr. Gostin worries that high charges for mandatory isolation could make patients wary of seeking needed medical treatment.
“The most important rule of public health is to gain the cooperation of the population,” he said. “There are legal, moral and public health reasons not to charge the patients.”
These hospital stays could prove expensive. The International Federation of Health Plans estimates that the average day in a U.S. hospital costs $4,293, compared with $1,308 in Australia and $481 in Spain. The hospital stays may be especially costly for patients without health insurance or for those who have large deductibles, which they must pay before their health benefits kick in. [Continue reading…]