Coronavirus: Hospitals sue patients and profit handsomely

I wish I could say that the COVID-19 pandemic has motivated Congress to take on high health care costs and predatory health care corporations. It has not. Instead, Vox reports that  Community Health Systems, a large national hospital system, has been profiting wildly while suing patients for unpaid bills.

According to Vox, throughout the pandemic, Community Health Systems, based in Tennessee, and Northwell Health, a hospital chain based in New York, have been going after patients with unpaid medical bills. A New York Times expose led Northwell to end this bad behavior. Many hospitals and state governments have banned lawsuits for unpaid medical bills during the pandemic.

With Community Health Systems, we are not talking a few hundred lawsuits. Community Health Systems has filed 19,000 lawsuits since March 2020. Meanwhile, its executives were rewarded handsomely, with multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses. The health system is flourishing, earning $511 million in profits in 2020. It received $705 million from the CARES Act in addition to state aid.

Trinitas Hospital, a nonprofit based in New Jersey reaped $2oo million in profits in 2020. It filed more than 12 lawsuits.

Our health care system need not and should not continue this way. Congress must make health care free. No one should be choosing between their health care and their rent. And, no health care stakeholder should be allowed, let alone have reason, to bring a lawsuit against a patient for necessary care provided. We need Medicare for All.

Vox notes that the University of Virginia Medical System is working towards ending these pernicious practices. It is canceling unpaid bills it has accrued since the 1990s. Way to go UVA!

Here’s more from Just Care:

• Are hospitals posting their prices, as required?
• Which states have hospitals that deliver appropriate care, good patient outcomes and invest in their communities?
• Need home health care? Don’t count on Medicare
• Aging in place: Safety at home
• Coronavirus: Medicare covers hospital care at home