Hospital Says Inmates Released to Avoid Paying Medical Bills
When a hospital comes after you for medical debt, you may feel like you’re the only person in the world. But a new story out of Washington state shows that hospitals will go after anyone – even the government – when bills go late.
The Daily News Online reports that St. John Medical Center is thinking of taking legal action against Cowlitz County for not paying the medical bills of county prisoners.
Cowlitz County, located just south of Seattle and Tacoma, is accused of releasing inmates just before or just after a visit to the hospital. Law states that the county is responsible for the medical treatment, including bill payment, of prisoners while under county care.
St. John’s routinely provides unpaid medical care to inmates, but is now trying to collect more than $100,000 in medical debt from instances where they claim the county is responsible. From the report:
The hospital cited state law, which states inmate medical costs must be paid by the cities and counties responsible for operating the jail, unless the inmate is eligible for state Medicaid. The hospital attorneys also pointed to a New Jersey court ruling which says a jail cannot “avoid its duty to provide health care to a prisoner by prematurely terminating his prison term.”
The hospital then outlines instances where they say an inmate was released just so he or she could receive medical care, and then picked up again shortly after being released from the hospital. St. John’s cites medical bills of $81,500, $20,000 and $58,000.
The county contends that taxpayers shouldn’t pay such bills for inmates who are only in jail for short periods of time. The cost of an inmate’s visit to a hospital can get very high, because an officer needs to be stationed with the inmate for the duration of the stay.
The Daily News says there have been about 10 disputed inmate medical bills in the last year, none of the disagreements have gotten this heated.
Both sides claim the high cost of the medical care is a reason the other should pitch in, but complex laws about which part of the government – city, county or state – has true custody of a prisoner further complicated the matter.
A St. John’s spokesperson said his group provided more than $30 million in unpaid care for inmates in 2008 and 2009, and those costs are often passed on to all of the hospital’s patients.
So could your medical bills be higher because of such costs? There’s no way to tell for sure