Most people have been in the hospital and it is those bills and how well people paid them that is being looked up in hospital billing databases. In 2003 my appendix burst and I was in and out of hospital and testing for 5 months as a result for $30-$40,000 worth (instead of $5,000 it should have been). I'm sure that will be looked up and how quickly/well I paid those hospital bills will be looked at and what insurance I had and how well they are known to pay, etc.

Yes, perhaps because I pay well I'll get the brain transplant whereas some homeless person will not but that has always been the case, as you pointed out. I don't think this will cause any "additional" problems in that arena and will help eliminate some "obviously" unnecessary paperwork that can't be eliminated now because there's no way to use any of the databases to look up information on whether an individual paid well or was unable to, etc. So, that person gets forms filled out and all sorts of legal shenanigans and multiple billings and is turned over to credit agencies, etc. all of which costs "extra" money in time and personnel when there's no way they can pay in the first place.

Tenet's fine and misuse is a known entity and that's good; they will be scruntinized up the whazoo as will their partners but each of these companies put in $10 million of their own monies so there must be good money to "save" saying it will be cost effective.