A Public Hospital That Serves the Poor — With Lawsuits

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http://www.alternet.org/public-hospital-serves-poor-lawsuits


Southeast Alabama Medical Center (SAMC), the only public hospital in the small city of Dothan, meets the first mandate by having a generous financial assistance policy. But it also ranks among the area’s most aggressive debt collectors, relentlessly pursuing payment even from patients who would have been eligible for reduced or free care had they applied for it.

Over the past three years, SAMC has filed more than 4,000 suits against its patients. And those who tumble through the hospital’s safety net often are stuck not only with care billed at full price, but with interest and legal fees from the court action.

Other public hospitals in Alabama and other states use similar tactics. In Missouri, two of the three hospitals that file the most debt-collection suits are public.

Chi Chi Wu, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, said it is “outrageous” for a public entity to take “this kind of heavy-handed action” against poor people already grappling with unavoidable health care emergencies.