La Inmaculada (Huercal Overa) and Torrecardenas (Almería city) hospitals will both shortly start issuing outpatients with “ghost invoices” facturas fantasmas in an effort to educate people about the true cost of their visit to the doctors.
The idea is that all patients will be issued with an invoice (which they don’t have to pay, it is for information only) detailing the cost of their visit, plus the medicines consumed, and explaining that yes, that “free” visit to the doctors does has a real cost which we all pay via our taxes.
The idea, which has been succesfully used elsewhere in Spain, is to make people think before coming along and bothering the GP’s.
Hospitals are very interested in spending to reach and sell patients who have commercial insurance. These are patients who are more willing to make their own decisions about where to go for care, and their medical reimbursement rates are the highest.