Despite growing evidence of the harm caused by medical debt, hundreds of U.S. hospitals maintain policies to aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills, using tactics such as lawsuits, selling patient accounts to debt buyers and reporting patients to credit rating agencies, a Kaiser Health News investigation shows.
Despite growing evidence of the harm caused by medical debt, hundreds of U.S. hospitals maintain policies to aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills, using tactics such as lawsuits, selling patient accounts to debt buyers, and reporting patients to credit rating agencies, a KHN investigation shows.
An examination of billing policies and practices at more than 500 hospitals across the country shows widespread reliance on aggressive collection tactics. A few hospitals have barred all aggressive collections, including two of California's leading academic medical centers at UCLA and Stanford University.