Major Hospital Chain Sues Patients During Pandemic: CNN [View all]

[Stuart G]

Warning: Horrific That a Hospital Chain Would Do This During Pandemic

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/us/hospital-lawsuits-pandemic-invs/index.html
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(CNN) — As the coronavirus spiked in Missouri last fall, a wave of cases hit a nursing home in the state's rural heartland. Robin Bull, a part-time nurse, remembered an ambulance "coming and going constantly" on one especially scary morning, rushing residents to Moberly Regional Medical Center, the local hospital.

But even as Bull was helping send patients to Moberly Regional, the hospital was in the process of suing her and at least one other former employee at the nursing home. They were two of more than 600 former patients that the hospital has sued over medical bills during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a CNN analysis of court records.

Moberly Regional sued Bull last May for $9,281, costs that Bull said came from an emergency room visit for food poisoning several years ago. After a judge ruled in the hospital's favor late last year, the company filed a motion to start garnishing part of her roughly $850-per-month salary.

Bull, who also receives disability payments, said she and her husband both contracted Covid-19 last summer, and they've struggled to pay their bills each month.

"I tried to reason with the lawyers and tell them there's no way I can pay for this, but nothing worked," Bull said. "Having this huge bill looming over my head -- it's been stressful, it's been heart-sickening."

Bull's experience is hardly unique. Hospitals owned by Community Health Systems, Inc., one of America's largest hospital chains, have filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against their patients over allegedly unpaid medical bills since March 2020, even as other hospitals around the country have moved to curtail similar lawsuits during the coronavirus pandemic, a CNN investigation found.

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