One of America's largest hospital chains has been suing thousands of patients during the pandemic

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.

 

The company's 84 hospitals, which are concentrated in the South and stretch from Alaska to Key West, Florida, have taken their patients to court for as little as $201 and as much as $162,000. They say litigation is a last resort.

 

CNN's review of court filings across 16 states the company operates in found that most of the patients sued by CHS ... didn't hire a lawyer or fight the lawsuits, and judges often ruled in the company's favor by default. In some states, defendants' debts piled on with attorney's fees and interest. Elsewhere, the hospital chain's subsidiaries quickly moved to garnish defendants' paychecks after a judgment.

 

Advocates say those hardball collection tactics can leave low-income patients in financial ruin -- especially considering the lawsuits were filed in the middle of the Covid-fueled economic collapse.

 

"I can't think of a worse thing a hospital system can be doing than suing patients for medical bills during a pandemic and a recession," said Caitlin Donovan, the spokeswoman for the National Patient Advocate Foundation, a patients' rights group.

 

CHS in 2020 enjoyed its most profitable year in at least a decade, even as it was suing patients during the pandemic. The company made $511 million in net income last year, a big swing after four straight years of annual losses. That strong financial result led to the company's top executives earning millions of dollars worth of bonuses, according to documents it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.