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YNHH Sued for Hounding Poor Patients
Bridgeport affiliate also named in class action
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Business New Haven
12/22/2003
By: BNH
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Eight patients suing Yale-New Haven and Bridgeport hospitals say they had their credit ruined, their wages garnished and liens placed on their homes to pay medical bills.
On December 16, Hartford attorney Daniel Livingston filed suit seeking as much as $100 million on behalf of eight Connecticut residents because the hospitals aggressively pursued his clients, knowing they couldn't pay the bills, while sitting on millions of dollars in funds earmarked to help the poor pay for medical services. He is seeking class-action status for the suit.
Representatives of the hospitals, which operate under the Yale New Haven Health System banner, counter that a national union is prompting the lawsuit as part of a campaign to unionize workers at the hospitals. They said they have made changes to their collections procedures and would fight the legal action.
Livingston said the number of people who might collect damages from the hospitals could reach into the thousands. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199, which has been working aggressively to organize workers at the hospitals, is supporting the lawsuit.
In an action filed in New Haven Superior Court, Livingston is asking for damages and for an independent board to be installed at both hospitals to address the situation.
The lawsuit centers on the hospitals' use of so-called free-bed funds, which are supposed to be used to help pay medical costs for the poor. Livingston said that even when the hospitals realized people couldn't afford to pay for the services, the two institutions failed to tell the people about the free-bed funds, as state law requires.
YNHH spokesman Vincent Petrini said his hospital adjusted its assistance guidelines in August and now gives any patient living at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level free care. However, according to Livingston, those recent changes didn't help many of his plaintiffs.
One is Bridgeport resident Quinton White, whose case attracted national attention after the Wall Street Journal published a story about his two-decade-long struggle with Yale-New Haven to pay off $18,739.53 in bills incurred after his wife was treated for cancer in 1982. That debt eventually swelled to more than $42,000. White paid $16,000 over a 20-year period, before Yale-New Haven finally forgave the debt - following substantial negative publicity - earlier this year.
YNHH said it has dropped 867 other claims against patients this year.
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