New York’s system of health care — much like the rest of the nation’s — allows for hundreds of thousands to go without health coverage and many more living under the fear of financial ruin that comes from knowing your healthcare coverage is woefully inadequate. 

The threat of mounting medical costs is best understood by the growing medical debts in the nation.

A recent study showed that Americans owe at least $220 billion in medical debt. Approximately 14 million people (6% of adults) in the U.S. owe over $1,000 in medical debt and about 3 million people (1% of adults) owe medical debt of more than $10,000.

The consequences of inadequate coverage impact the nation.  As reported by Forbes, “Fully half of Americans now carry medical debt, up from 46% in 2020”

Under current New York law, hospitals that receive funding from the Indigent Care Pool (nearly every hospital in the state) are required to have a financial assistance policy and charge discounted prices to eligible patients. The state’s Indigent Care Pool distributes over $1 billion a year. Non-profit hospitals are also required by the IRS to screen patients for financial assistance before engaging in collection activities, such as selling a patients’ debt, reporting adverse information to credit agencies, or suing them.

Yet medical debts still plague too many New Yorkers.

A July 2023 study by the Urban Institute revealed that 740,000 New Yorkers faced medical debt and that it is disproportionately shouldered by people of color, low-income people and people who live in rural parts of New York State.

The Long Island newspaper, Newsday, recently reported that the Stony Brook University Hospital has been suing patients over medical debt. The report concluded that more than 950 cases have been filed against people believed to owe Stony Brook hospital money in the first half of 2024. Stony Brook University Hospital is the area’s only regional system suing for unpaid medical bills. Last year, the Stony Brook system accounted for 52% of all medical debt cases brought by the state’s more than 200 hospitals combined.

According to Newsday, other regional hospital systems — which are all nonprofits or government-run — have moved away from suing over unpaid bills and none currently file lawsuits against patients.

Legislation has been introduced in New York to stop the practice. The bill would protect New Yorkers who receive care from State-operated hospitals from medical debt lawsuits. There are five New York State-operated hospitals — SUNY Upstate (Syracuse), SUNY Downstate (Brooklyn), SUNY Stony Brook (Long Island), Roswell Park (Buffalo) and Helen Hayes (Rockland County). Together, they sue their patients at grossly disproportionate rates compared to other New York hospitals: they are responsible for three-quarters of all medical debt lawsuits filed in 2022. 

There is no economic rationale to support medical debt litigation. Again from Newsday:  In six months, the hospital’s lawsuits sought a total of $13.7 million, or about 0.8% of the $1.8 billion net patient revenue Stony Brook reported in 2021. Stony Brook received four judgments in 2022.

In addition, the total amount generated by Syracuse-based SUNY Upstate from suing patients for in one year was just $16 million. SUNY Upstate’s annual operating budget was $1.5 billion, indicating its life-ruining practice of suing its patients will do little to improve its bottom line.

Suing patients is expensive and will do little to offset the state-run hospitals’ stressed margins.  It does, however, torture those patients and their families who have both the trauma of recovering from a hospital procedure while contending with significant bills. 

The American health care system fails to deliver when it comes to the basic necessary coverage people need. Allowing hospitals to sue over payment disputes just adds another level of uncertainty to an already difficult system. Patients and families without adequate insurance have enough to deal with without facing financial ruin from hospital bill lawsuits. Hopefully, next year’s session will end this practice.