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Ohio Valley Medical Center, East Ohio Regional Hospital: Meet Us Halfway on Bills

Photo by Scott McCloskey Ohio Valley Medical Center, pictured, and East Ohio Regional Hospital are offering to write off the rest of patients’ bills if they pay half.

WHEELING — A current deal allowing patients to pay only half of their outstanding bills at Ohio Valley Medical Center and East Ohio Regional Hospital is a “win-win” situation for all parties, hospital officials contend.

Karin Janiszewski, director of marketing and public relations at OVMC and EORH, said Monday the limited offer has been made so that the hospitals get revenue from overdue accounts while allowing patients to cut their debt in half. The offer applies to any medical bills incurred before 2019, she said. Under the current plan, if a patient pays 50 percent of a medical bill from 2018 or earlier, the hospitals will write off the remaining half of the bill.

The current offer is set to end Feb. 28, but Janiszewski said the hospitals plan to extend the deal to mid-March because of its popularity.

“We’ve had such positive feedback,” she said. “It’s been very well received. We’ve collected a lot of money.”

Jose Guevara, newly hired revenue cycle director for OVMC and EORH, proposed the plan “to bring in income from people who are trying to do payments.”

“It’s a really good way to collect on old accounts,” she said.

Guevara found the plan was effective at other hospitals that were able collect some revenue rather than completely writing off long-overdue bills.

Janiszewski said, “It’s a win-win for us. We do, at least, get half of the fees. They (patients) are also able to make the payments instead of just saying, ‘I’m not paying’ or ‘I’ve stopped paying.’ Instead, they’re saying, ‘I’ll give that a try.'”

The offer is appealing to “people who were trying to pay the minimum they could — because they could not pay otherwise,” she said.

Based on the response to this offer, OVMC and EORH have created another incentive for customers who have accounts payable.

“We’re also doing the same thing for labs and X-rays. If they (patients) pay in full, they get 10-20 percent off,” she said. “It’s really encouraging people to try to pay.”

The two hospitals are owned by Alecto Healthcare Services and are operated as for-profit facilities.

Alecto, based in Irvine, Calif., purchased OVMC in Wheeling and EORH in Martins Ferry from Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corp. in June 2017. Prior to the sale, OVHS&E operated the hospitals as nonprofit entities.

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