Pelvic Ultrasound Fails, Woman Refuses To Pay

This weekend’s Bottom Line column:

It’s hard to tell sometimes who’s more challenged by health care, the consumer or the health-care provider.

“The system needs greater transparency,” says Dr. Ethan Foxman, president and chief executive officer of Jefferson Radiology, “with easy access to information, whether it’s a basic [medical] chart or payment information.”

Mary Jane, a Greater Hartford psychotherapist whose real name is being withheld for reasons that will become apparent, knows both ends of the system.

“I work with a number of chronic medical patients,” she says, “and I agree that navigating the system is more complicated than it needs to be.”
But earlier this year, she objected to what she considered a lack of transparency when she visited Jefferson Radiology as a patient after her doctor ordered an ultrasound scan of her ovaries.

More . . .