CONSEJO CELEBRATES FOUR-YEAR ANNIVERSARY WITH NEW “TRUTH-IN-PRICING” HOSPITAL WEBSITE  
 

Advocacy Group Exposed Outrageously High Hospital Bills in 2001; Helped Provoke Major Changes in Health Care Industry 
 

ORLANDO, FL—Consejo de Latinos Unidos, a national non-profit organization which educates and assists Hispanics and the uninsured, celebrated its four-year birthday today, vowing to “make truth-in-pricing and transparency in the hospital sector a reality,” by launching a new website www.hospitalvictims.com. 

“Unlike any other advocacy group in the nation, we have caused real, concrete change for the good of the public and helped improve treatment of the uninsured by hospitals,” said K.B. Forbes, Executive Director of the Consejo. “Four years ago, the hospital industry was in denial and politicians ignored us. Now, Consejo is known as the pioneer that exposed the insidious and egregious behavior of hospital price gouging, which culminated with Congressional hearings last year.” 

Forbes announced the launch of the Consejo’s new website www.hospitalvictims.com that will provide consumers with information about price-gouging hospitals, an effort to spur truth-in-pricing and transparency in the hospital industry. “Some hospitals are going to continue to hide behind their ‘we-charge-everyone-the-same’ myth. Consejo is going to expose the truth with the facts: financial numbers from Medicare that show how the uninsured are grossly overcharged,” said Forbes. “We are also providing a forum—blogs—for victims to voice their opinions on price gouging hospitals.” 

The website will begin with the Orlando, Florida market and then eventually expand to over 70 hospitals in Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania, California and other states the Consejo has been conducting educational and investigative work.  

Consejo has also put together a database of almost 7,200 hospitals in all 50 states with the average discount given to patients with insurance (HMO, PPO, Medicare, Indemnity, etc.). Uninsured patients will be given that critical information so that they can negotiate a reasonable and fair price for services rendered. 

“Our goal is to become an important exit on the information highway for the uninsured,” said Forbes. “We hope the uninsured will be treated fairly when it comes to pricing.”