A hospital in New Jersey is the latest to be spotlighted for filing lawsuits during the COVID-19 pandemic seeking to recover unpaid debts from patients. But unlike other hospitals that have been accused of filing hundreds or thousands of lawsuits and being overly aggressive, Trinitas Medical Center — one of the largest nonprofit hospitals in New Jersey — filed 12 lawsuits in the past 13 months, attempting to recover $350,000.
To its credit, the media outlet sought and included comments from the provider in its report. A spokesman for Trinitas said what many in the industry already know to be true — that lawsuits are a last resort and that it has to do everything it can to cover its expenses, which it is barely doing. “…if we did not pursue all avenues for reimbursement we would no longer be in business,” the spokesman said in the report. The hospital wrote off nearly $19 million in bad debt last year, according to the report.
But those comments are “cold comfort” to the individuals who were sued for not paying their healthcare bills, according to the report.
Hospitals in Colorado, Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, New York, Tennessee, Kansas, Maryland, and Wisconsin have all accused of being “too aggressive” by filing lawsuits to collect on unpaid debts. Many hospitals have stopped filing collection lawsuits and enforcing judgments as a result of the publicity. Last month, UVA Hospital in Virginia announced it was wiping out many of its outstanding liens and judgments dating back to the 1990s, a move that was expected to impact tens of thousands of families.
