Date Posted: Thursday, July 22, 2004 at 1:30 PM CST

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

NONPROFIT HOSPITAL LITIGATION ATTORNEYS  RESPOND
TO STATEMENT BY THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

For Immediate Release

Oxford, Mississippi, (July 22, 2004) -- In response to a statement issued by the American Hospital Association (“AHA”), a co-defendant in class action lawsuits brought by uninsured patients against nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals for failing to fulfill their government obligations to provide charitable healthcare to uninsured patients and overcharging uninsured patients significantly more than any other patient group, the lawyers for the plaintiffs today stated:

“The press statement by the defendant AHA is just another example of the spin put out by this paid co-defendant of the nonprofit hospitals to deflect the focus away from the simple fact that many nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals are not carrying out their government obligations to provide charitable healthcare to uninsured patients and are, in fact, charging uninsured patients inflated rates that are above and beyond what they charge any other patient group.  In the AHA statement, its president Dick Davidson says, among other things, that the AHA is “seeking solutions to the issue of helping hospitals serve the uninsured” and that the litigation is “diverting focus away from the real issue of how we as a nation are going to extend healthcare coverage to all Americans.”

With respect to “seeking solutions” the co-defendant AHA knows full well that the defendant nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals simply have to operate as nonprofits and fulfill their government obligations and they know that they have been perpetuating the practice of overcharging uninsured patients.  With regard to “extended health coverage to all Americans”, we question whether this empty call by co-defendant AHA is out of compassion for the uninsured patients that the defendants have so aggressively sued for collection or simply evidence of the desire of the defendants to divert attention away from their malfeasance and seek to be paid for all care rendered, increase their profits and have no reason to provide charity care at all.  

Noticeably and painfully absent from the statement by co-defendant AHA is any real defense of the wrongdoings perpetrated against the uninsured patients by the defendant nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals and the fact that, despite violating their government obligations to provide charitable healthcare to the uninsured, they are continuing receive enormous economic benefits from the substantial tax exemptions associated with these obligations.  Perhaps the AHA must “spin” in this fashion because the AHA receives millions of dollars in dues annually from its members and that, according to its Form 990, the AHA’s president receives well-over $1 million in compensation annually as the paid agent of hospitals, including the defendant nonprofit hospital systems and hospitals.”

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