Mapping How New York’s Hospitals Sue Vulnerable Patients: An Update
Mia Wagner
An earlier version of this analysis by Amanda Dunker was published in June 2020.
New York State hospitals are all nonprofit charities – but that hasn’t stopped some of them from suing their patients for small outstanding medical debts. In March of 2020, CSS analyzed hospitals in 26 out of 62 New York counties and uncovered more than 30,000 lawsuits against patients since 2015. Since then, we’ve completed the search for all of New York’s 210 hospitals, plus the five state-run facilities, in all 62 counties – and the results are in!
Searching public court records, this research identified a universe of more than 80,000 hospital lawsuits brought by non-profit hospitals since 2015 and state-run hospitals since 2019. The disproportionately large volume of cases brought by state-run facilities required CSS to limit its analysis of their cases to those filed since 2019. The five state-run facilities are responsible for over 20 percent of all medical debt lawsuits, despite this limit on the search timeframe. By contrast, most of the 210 other hospitals in New York State do not sue their patients at all or only do so very rarely. Nationally and in New York, many hospitals are discontinuing or reducing the practice of suing patients or erasing patients’ medical debt.
The five state-run facilities alone have filed over 16,000 lawsuits since 2019, representing 20 percent of all medical debt suits. These state-run facilities receive over $530 million annually in federal Disproportionate Share Hospital funding which is supposed to support their uncompensated care costs. CSS research found that SUNY Upstate, for example, disproportionately sued patients who live in low-income communities of color – even 12 patients who were incarcerated and demonstrably had no means to pay their bills.
CSS Discharged Into Debt series of reports takes a closer look at these alarming lawsuits against patients and finds some disturbing trends. New York hospitals receive billions of dollars in state support each year, including over $1 billion in Indigent Care Pool funds, designed to support the provision of financial assistance to low- and moderate-income New Yorkers. Yet we found that the hospitals that sue the most patients routinely keep these ICP funds instead of offering financial assistance to patients, thus pocketing a windfall. Our reports also found that nonprofit hospitals often disproportionately sue patients of color, aggressively sued patients at the height of the pandemic, garnished the wages of low-wage workers, and took liens on patients’ homes.
Use the map below to learn more about how your local hospital treats patients with medical debt.
Map updated February 2024. This map was supported and co-created by BetaNYC through the use of BetaNYC's RADAR system.
Data on civil court cases was retrieved from eCourts, a resource created by the New York State Unified Court System. Data on state-run facilities was retrieved from the New York State Courts Electronic Filing Supreme Civil Court database. Data on indigent care pool funding was provided by the New York State Department of Health. Data on the amount hospitals spent on financial assistance was retrieved from the hospitals’ Institutional Cost Reports, filed annually with the New York State Department of Health. The windfall amounts reported on the map are the difference between what the hospital received from the state’s indigent care pool and the amount they reported spending on financial assistance for uninsured patients. For more information about the methodology, see our report Discharged Into Debt. State-run facility lawsuit totals are cumulative from 2019 to 2023. Non-profit hospital lawsuit totals are cumulative from 2015 to 2022 with 2023 cases included for all hospitals that sued patients for medical debt in the previous seven years.
Learn more
In May 2023 CSS VP of Health Initiatives Elisabeth Benjamin joined The Capitol Pressroom with David Lombardo to discuss language in the state budget to improve access to financial assistance for health care costs and highlight outstanding initiatives to combat medical debt.
Medical Debt Collection Tactics in the News
- Medical Debt Is Crushing Black Americans, and Hospitals Aren’t Helping
- One Hospital System Sued 2,500 Patients After Pandemic Hit
- Upstate University Hospital Blasted for Suing More Than 1,500 Patients Over Unpaid Bills
- Some Aggressive Hospitals in New York Are Garnishing Wages of Poor Patients
- Hospitals Must Stop Placing Liens on Medical Debtors' Homes