The Nonprofit Hospital That Makes Millions, Owns a Collection Agency and Relentlessly Sues the Poor

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — In July 2007, Carrie Barrett went to the emergency room at Methodist University Hospital, complaining of shortness of breath and tightness in her chest. Her leg was swollen, she’d later recall, and her toes were turning black.

Given her family history, high blood pressure and newly diagnosed congestive heart failure, doctors performed a heart catheterization, threading a long tube through her groin and into her heart.

Her share of the two-night stay: $12,109.

Barrett, who has never made more than $12 an hour, doesn’t remember getting any notices to pay from the hospital. But in 2010,
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare sued her for the unpaid medical bills, plus attorney’s fees and court costs.

Since then, the nonprofit hospital system affiliated with the United Methodist Church has doggedly pursued her, adding interest to the debt seven times and garnishing money from her paycheck on 15 occasions.

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Methodist’s aggressive collection practices stand out in a city where nearly 1 in 4 residents live below the poverty line.

Its handling of poor patients begins with a financial assistance policy that, unlike many of its peers around the country, all but ignores patients with any form of health insurance, no matter their out-of-pocket costs. If they are unable to afford their bills, patients then face what experts say is rare: A licensed collection agency owned by the hospital.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-nonprofit-hospital-that-makes-millions-owns-a-collection-agency-and-relentlessly-sues-the-poor/ar-AADv8lq?li=BBnb7Kz

[dalton99a]

1. This is a must read.

[dameatball]

2. "Non-profit" doesn't mean they aren't making money, especially the executives. Not just hospitals.

Blood banks are another example. However, owning a collection agency is rubbing salt in the wounds, no pun intended.

[irisblue]

3. From a local paper

Sourcehttps://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2019/06/30/methodist-lebonheur-ceo-responds-propublica-mlk-50-investigation-employee-lawsuits-michael-ugwueke/1609363001/


Snip-"We offer a generous financial assistance policy as well. Our team will work with every patient — insured and uninsured — struggling with medical expenses. Uninsured patients receive an automatic 70% discount off the cost of their care and we will work with any patient willing to work with us to create a payment plan that fits their budgets.

As the largest health system in Memphis, we see a lot of patients. Last year we had a total of 857,832 patient encounters, 87,521 of which were visits with uninsured patients. In every case, the only time we pursue legal action to collect a debt is when the patients who can pay refuse to work with us. Of the hundreds of thousands of patients we saw last year, we only went to court to collect debt from uninsured patients for less than one tenth of one percent of all the uninsured patients we saw, and only then after all other means to collect were exhausted."

Snip--" Recent media attention has focused on our organization’s practices for collecting overdue medical bills. The spotlight placed on our health system does not accurately portray our team members or the extensive and thoughtful processes we have in place to help both uninsured and insured patients."

More at article.


Someone is capable of feeling the heat & shame.

[area51]

4. This is obscene,

and will end once we get comprehensive Medicare for All.

[irisblue]

5. And NPR picks up the story....

Source-https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/28/736736444/a-tennessee-hospital-sues-its-own-employees-when-they-cant-pay-their-medical-bil

snip--"From 2014 through 2018, the hospital system, which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, has filed more than 8,300 lawsuits against patients, including some of its own workers. After winning judgments, it has sought to garnish the wages of more than 160 Methodist workers and has actually done so in more than 70 instances over that time, according to an MLK50-ProPublica analysis of Shelby County General Sessions Court records, online docket reports and case files.

Some of the debts were accrued while the employees worked at Methodist; others predated their time there. The figures do not include debts incurred by onetime Methodist employees who have since moved on."


Snip-"What makes matters worse, employees say, is that Methodist's health insurance benefits only allow employees to seek medical care at Methodist facilities, even though the financial assistance policies at its competitors are more generous.

A specialist in hospital billing practices says that if the hospital is suing a fair number of its own employees, it's time to examine both the insurance provided to workers and the pay scale."


More at article