Discharged into Debt: New York’s Nonprofit Hospitals are Suing Patients

Summary: All of New York's hospitals are nonprofit, charitable institutions. So why are they suing patients over small outstanding medical bills? In response to consumer complaints about increasingly aggressive collection practices used by nonprofit hospital systems, CSS reviewed nearly 31,000 civil cases filed against individual patients by 139 hospitals in 26 counties. We found that the hospitals who sue the most patients provide insufficient financial assistance and rely on professional debt collection law firms to go up against patients who are largely unrepresented.

Issues: Access to Health Care

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