Key Senator Blasts Hospitals' Payment Policies

By Suzanne Perry

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has criticized nonprofit hospitals that have an "upfront-collection policy" or demand cash payments from people with inadequate or no insurance before treating them. At a Congressional hearing on ways to fix the country's health-care system, the Iowa senator cited a news report about a leukemia patient who had trouble getting care at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, because her insurance did not