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Two more lawsuits filed against nonprofits

Compliance Monitor, October 6, 2004

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The numbers are in: 370 and counting. Hospitals in Oregon and Washington are the latest in a string of lawsuits filed against nonprofit hospitals for allegedly failing to provide charitable care to uninsured patients.

Forty-nine litigations are now underway as of September 29, with the recent addition of two systems: Providence Health System and Providence Health System-Oregon and Legacy Health System, Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center, and Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center.

According to a press release from the Richard Scruggs law firm that filed the two class-action complaints, Providence and Legacy are failing to meet obligations to provide charity care to uninsured patients, and as a result are receiving millions of dollars each year in tax exemptions.

Providence operates several hospitals in Washington and Oregon, and Legacy operates four hospitals in Oregon.

"All these defendant nonprofit hospitals are charging the uninsured patients highly inflated sticker prices for treatment and then dispensing only a tiny fraction of their revenues on charity care," Richard F. Scruggs stated in the release.

For more information, click here.

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