Washington AG sues Providence, Swedish hospitals over charity care law
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit against 14 Providence and Swedish Health Services hospitals for allegedly denying charity care to eligible patients.
The hospitals in question include some of the largest in the state: Swedish Medical Center First Hill, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett and Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane.
According to the lawsuit, the hospitals trained employees to aggressively collect payments from patients regardless of their eligibility for financial assistance, failed to tell patients they qualified for aid and sent more than 54,000 low-income patients to debt collection, despite knowing they could receive discounts or even full write-offs.
Washington’s charity care law requires all hospitals to reduce some or all of the costs of health care for patients with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/02/24/providence-swedish-ferguson-charity-care-lawsuit.html
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