Fewer Hospitals Sue Patients for Unpaid Bills After Researchers, Media Expose the Practice

A year after a 2019 JAMA study and media coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national outlets publicized that Virginia hospitals were suing patients for unpaid medical bills, the number of medical debt lawsuits filed by hospitals in the state dropped 59%. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, and the University of Oklahoma published their findings online in JAMA Network Open.

“To investigate how aggressive hospitals can be in pursuing medical debt, we previously reported in JAMA that 36% of Virginia hospitals collectively filed 20,054 warrant in debt lawsuits and 9232 wage garnishment cases,” the team explained in the new study. “We found that hospitals pursued patients for inflated medical charges in court and garnished paychecks from US residents with low income. Through popular news and media outlets, this research article helped to start a national conversation on aggressive hospital billing practices.”

To gauge the effect of the original study and accompanying press coverage on hospital billing practices, researchers compared the number of lawsuits filed by 67 Virginia hospitals for unpaid medical bills a year before and after the initial media attention.

Compared with 30,760 such lawsuits filed against patients the year before the study’s publication, the year afterward hospitals filed just 12,510 lawsuits for unpaid medical bills, representing a 59% drop, the study showed. The dollar amount pursued in court, meanwhile, fell from roughly $38.7 million to $13.9 million, reflecting a 64% decrease.

Over the course of the study, 11 hospitals completely banned the practice, researchers reported, including one large health system that in a press release referenced the 2019 article that exposed what study authors described as its “excessive number of medical debt lawsuits.”

“These findings suggest that research and public health initiatives rooted in media exposure can increase public accountability for hospital billing practices and result in meaningful changes that benefit patients,” researchers advised.

Reference:
Paturzo JGR, Hashim F, Dun C, et al. Trends in Hospital Lawsuits Filed Against Patients for Unpaid Bills Following Published Research About This Activity. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(8):e2121926. Published 2021 Aug 2. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.21926