US Hospitals “Bait and Switch” Charity Care Patients and turn them over to debt collectors, and that time I got a court to strike down part of the Indiana Medicaid law.

US Hospitals “Bait and Switch” Charity Care Patients and turn them over to debt collectors. -The New York Times

In training materials obtained by The Times, members of the hospital staff were instructed how to approach patients and pressure them to pay.

“Ask every patient, every time,” the materials said. Instead of using “weak” phrases — like “Would you mind paying?” — employees were told to ask how patients wanted to pay. Soliciting money “is part of your role. It’s not an option.”

If patients did not pay, Providence sent debt collectors to pursue them.

The hospital in the article is also a hedge fund with over $10 billion in investments, which brags about breaking state laws about debt collection, and that less than 1% of its bills end up as charity care.

In many ways though, this is similar to my experience with Parkview Hospital in Indiana in 2009. I had two seizures and was uninsured, and was in their ER for about 5-6 hours.

They handed me a bill for over $12,500 ($17,200 in inflation adjusted dollars) then told me I would qualify for “Charity Care” since I was uninsured.

They told me I would have my bill forgiven if I applied for Indiana Medicaid and got denied. They’d even send a lawyer to help me appeal.

So I did everything I was supposed to, and when we lost the case, they turned me over to a debt collector for $12,500 instead of forgiving it.

When I talked to the same woman in the billing department, she said she never recalled saying it would be forgiven if I applied for Medicaid and lost.

I never did pay the bill. I told the lady from the debt collection agency that if they sued me, I had no assets for them to take and would probably either file bankruptcy or stay judgment-proof (too poor to take anything from).

When I ultimately declared bankruptcy in 2020 over something else, I shoved Parkview Hospital in it and they very charitably have to never bring it up again or else.

Charity Care.

The lawyer they sent to the appeal hearing was basically useless. He didn’t even say anything and he just let them deny me without arguing about it.

When I filed for Medicaid again, I did it on my own, got denied again, filed an appeal and went to a judge, and got the law that they used to deny my appeal with struck down in court.

I got my Medicaid approval letter in the mail two weeks later. But by that time it had been more than 90 days since I was in the ER and they didn’t pay for it.

But I did manage to change a law because I was good and pissed off.

The Republicans in the Indiana legislature ended up having to pass a new Medicaid law that complied with the court’s decision to expand Medicaid (which I’m sure is the last thing they wanted to be in there doing), and which made thousands of people in Indiana newly eligible for Medicaid.