Becker's Spine Review

45 HEALTHCARE NEWS Community Health Systems has sued 19,000 patients for unpaid bills during the COVID-19 pandemic By Alia Paavola F ranklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems has filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against patients to collect un- paid bills since March 2020, CNN reported May 17. e for-profit system, which has 84 hospitals across 16 states, has sued patients to recoup as little as $201 and as much as $162,000 in unpaid medical bills, according to the report. CNN found that most patients CHS sued didn't hire a lawyer or fight the lawsuits, and judges oen ruled in the company's favor by default. Additionally, CNN reported that the hospital operator's subsidiaries quickly moved to gar- nish defendants' paychecks aer a ruling. In a statement shared with Becker's Hospital Review, CHS said legal action is always the "last resort" and only is pursued against pa- tients who do not respond to numerous com- munication attempts and who appear to have resources to pay based on credit records or employment status. CHS also said its hospi- tals sue a small fraction of the patients they treat each year. "Before initiating legal proceedings, our hospitals make repeated attempts to con- tact patients — often ten times or more — to communicate with them about their bill. Our hospitals do not sue patients we know can't pay for their care — but they must rely on these patients to engage with them to demonstrate their financial status," CHS said. CHS also said it doesn't litigate against pa- tients who lost their jobs because of the pan- demic and that, under a new policy adopted earlier in 2021, it would withdraw lawsuits against anyone earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. e hospital system said it encourages any individual who is a defendant in a debt col- lection suit who had a change in financial status because of COVID-19 or is a fit for its updated financial assistance policy to contact CHS. n HCA to sell 4 Georgia hospitals for $950M By Alia Paavola H CA Healthcare will divest four of its hospitals in Georgia for about $950 million, the Nashville, Tenn.-based hospital system said May 3. The for-profit provider will sell the four facilities to Piedmont Healthcare, a non- profit health system based in Atlanta. The four hospitals are the 310-bed East- side Medical Center in Snellville; the 119- bed Cartersville Medical Center; and the two-hospital Coliseum Health System, which includes 310-bed Coliseum Med- ical Centers in Mason and 103-bed Coli- seum Northside in Mason. Piedmont will also assume ownership of a behavioral health facility owned by the Coliseum Health System. HCA said the transaction will provide strategic value as it increases its financial flexibility to invest in its core markets. The two health systems expect the transaction to close in the third quar- ter of 2021. It still needs regulatory ap- provals. n 66% of Americans neglected their healthcare during pandemic: 6 findings By Alan Condon M ore than two-thirds of Americans skipped or postponed care during the COVID-19 pandemic, with fear of contracting the virus, lost health insurance and the cost of care among the top reasons, ac- cording to a recent survey by Tempus, a Chicago-based technology company. Between March 17 and 27, 2021, Tempus surveyed 1,078 Americans about their experience of health and healthcare during the pandemic. Forty-nine percent of respondents were female and 51 percent were male, with an average age of 39 and an age range of 18 to 70. Six findings from the survey: 1. Sixty-six percent of respondents delayed or canceled medical appoint- ments, with 50 percent of parents reporting that their children missed ap- pointments during the pandemic. 2. Of the cohort that deferred care, 83 percent said they were suffering from COVID-19 comorbidities. 3. When asked why they postponed care, 57 percent reported concern about contracting COVID-19. 4. Cost of care (46 percent), limited appointments offered by physicians (35 percent) and lost health insurance (28 percent) were other key contributors. 5. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they did not seek healthcare during the pandemic because of a loss of income or insurance. 6. Thirty-one percent reported cost as the reason they stopped taking one or more prescription medications. n

• Cover