Date Posted: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 2:00 PM CST

Contact:     Richard Scruggs
    The Scruggs Law Firm, P.A.
    (662) 281-1212

CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS BY UNINSURED PATIENTS BROUGHT AGAINST
SIX MORE NONPROFIT HOSPITAL SYSTEMS AROUND THE COUNTRY

-- 27 Nonprofit Hospital Systems in 15 States Have Become Defendants in Class Action Lawsuits since June 17, 2004 --

Oxford, Mississippi (July 7, 2004)  -- Six new class action lawsuits have been filed today by uninsured patient plaintiffs against nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Oklahoma.  Each of the lawsuits charges the respective defendant nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals with victimizing the uninsured plaintiff patients by failing to fulfill their obligations to provide government required charity care in return for substantial tax exemptions.  The lawsuits charge the defendants with requiring their uninsured patients to pay unfair and unreasonable health care prices that are far in excess of the discounted amounts accepted by these same defendants from their insured patients.

The class action lawsuits filed today by uninsured patient plaintiffs are:

• In Florida: Defendant: Lee Memorial Health Systems; United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Ft. Myers Division; litigation filed by Law offices of Archie Lamb, LLC and Carlton & Carlton, Attorneys at Law;

Defendant: Florida Hospital Healthcare System, Inc., d/b/a Florida Hospital and Adventist Health Systems; United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division; litigation filed by Law offices of Archie Lamb, LLC and Carlton & Carlton, Attorneys at Law;

• In Georgia: Defendant: The Medical College of Georgia; United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, in Augusta, Georgia; litigation filed by Cathy & Strain, Vroon & Crongeyer, LLP and Barrett Law Office;

• In Mississippi: Defendant:  St. Dominic Health Services, Inc., St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital; United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Jackson Division; litigation filed by The Scruggs Law Firm, P.A., Barrett Law Office, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, David L. Merideth, M.D., J.D.,  and Sonny Merideth, Esq.

• In New Jersey: Defendant: Saint Barnabas of Livingston, New Jersey; United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark; litigation filed by Bernstein, Liebhard & Lifshitz, LLP; and

• In Oklahoma: Defendant: Integris Health Systems, Inc.; United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma; litigation filed by Law offices of Archie Lamb LLC.

With the filings of today’s litigations, twenty-seven uninsured patient class action lawsuits now have been brought against defendant nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals in fifteen states across the country.  These defendant nonprofit hospital systems control approximately 250 hospitals in aggregate.

It is anticipated that, over the course of the litigations filed today, it will be revealed that the six defendant nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals have for years spent only a small percentage of their sizeable revenues on charity care for the uninsured while reaping enormous cash windfalls from their tax exempt status.  The litigations make clear that, while the defendants have long track records of providing significant discounts for healthcare to patients who either are privately insured or use third party payors such as Medicare and Medicaid, they charge their uninsured patients gross or “sticker” price.  Consequently, the only patients who are required by the defendants to pay the full excessive healthcare costs are the uninsured, the patient group that can least afford such costs.  Furthermore, the defendants often engage in predatory and harassing collection tactics to force payment from the numerous uninsured patients unable to pay these “sticker” prices, often hounding the patients for years and, in numerous instances, forcing personal bankruptcies.

Despite their misconduct, the defendants along with the other twenty-one nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals previously sued since June 17 and their trade organization, the American Hospital Association (“AHA”), are engaged in an ongoing attempt to mislead the public and governmental authorities with a campaign of misinformation and misleading financial data regarding their financial strength, financial needs, and their use of financial resources.  

According to the 2003 annual report issued by Adventist Health System in Winter Park, Florida, the Adventist system generated a profit of over $203 million in 2003, and holds cash and investments in excess of $1.7 billion.  Both the profits and cash and investments of the Winter Park system have increased considerably over the three-year period covered by the report published by Adventist.  

In some cases, large investment losses have obscured the fact that the hospital itself is operating at a profit.  St. Dominic Health of Jackson, MS reported investment losses of almost $31.3 million in 2002, while the hospital itself reported a profit of over $7.2 million in the same period, according to IRS filings.  St. Dominic reported over $187 million in total cash and investments at the end of 2002, according to returns filed with the IRS.

In New Jersey, Saint Barnabus was cited as operating four of the ten most expensive hospitals in the state of New Jersey, according to a 2003 report published by the Institute for Health & Socio-Economic Policy.  The hospitals operated by Saint Barnabus ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th most expensive in the state, according to the study.

Named as a conspirator in the litigations filed today, as well as in the other litigations filed against nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals since June 17 is the AHA.

To learn more about that the class action lawsuits by uninsured patients against nonprofit hospital systems and nonprofit hospitals, please visit www.nfplitigation.com

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