CHICAGO, IL—In a scathing letter to the editor to be published in this week’s editions of Modern Healthcare News, K.B. Forbes, Executive Director of the Consejo de Latinos Unidos, the nation’s leading advocacy group against hospital price gouging of the uninsured, ripped columnist Todd Sloane for having “never bothered to pick up his telephone to investigate and verify the false allegations he peddles.” 

Sloane alleged in a column published the week of March 27, 2006 that K.B. Forbes was an HSA (Health Savings Account) backer who had conspired with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the HSA industry on the issue of hospital price transparency.  

In his role as the leader of the Consejo, neither Forbes nor the Consejo de Latinos Unidos itself have ever publicly advocated for or against any form of insurance. 

In his letter Forbes noted, “As a producer for CBS’ 60 Minutes wrote in a letter to the American Hospital Association (AHA), ‘Forbes says his work is on behalf of the uninsured, and is in no way connected with any agenda of any insurance company. All the evidence we’ve seen shows that is correct. And, even Forbes’ harshest critics have not provided any evidence that his work for the uninsured involves promoting, proselytizing or lobbying for any form of insurance.’” 

Forbes touted the Consejo’s achievements in improving education, police protection, and preventing fraud. Sloane, described as a “small-minded, easily-spun, sloppy industry writer,” was accused of wanting “to blame anyone but the hospital sector itself for hospital price gouging and the wrath it has brought.”  

Forbes called Sloane’s commentary “nothing more than a five-minute Viagra to the hospital insiders and hospital associations that are in a drunken state of denial. Like it or not, hospital price gouging is coming to an end and truth-in-pricing is arriving. 

“Consejo will continue to protect the interests of the Latino and uninsured communities regardless of what lies and conspiracies Sloane and others disseminate,” Forbes vowed.