South Sound News

Olympia hospital sued for withholding charity care

By Amy Clancy
By Amy Clancy
Capital Medical Center, a for-profit hospital in Olympia, engaged in illegally aggressive collection tactics, according to Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
On Thursday, Ferguson filed a lawsuit against the facility on Capital Mall Drive Southwest for allegedly violating the state's Consumer Protection Act.
“They literally threaten to cancel your appointments to see your doctor if you don’t pay” Ferguson told KIRO 7.  He called the hospital’s tactics a “culture.”

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“There’s a culture there to extract money out of every single person who comes in” he said, even low-income patients who qualify for reduced cost or free care.         
Washington State law requires all hospitals -- whether private or public --- to screen in advance patients' ability to pay.
If patients meet certain low-income criteria, they are to be notified of their charity care options verbally and in writing.
Ferguson alleges Capital instead trained staff to pressure patients to pay for treatments up-front, without charity care screening or notice.
“This is not one or two employees going off on their own,” Ferguson told KIRO 7 in an interview. “This was a culture from the very top of extracting payment from everybody, even though that violates the law.”
The complaint includes what Ferguson calls written "evidence" of law-breaking, and sales incentives on the backs of patients, collected during an 18-month investigation.
“Supervisors at the hospital made it clear to collect from every patient every time, and if they were able to do that they were rewarded with cash bonuses or even pizza parties,” the AG said.
“Hey, I’m all for folks making money. They just have to do that in a way that follows the law.”
Ferguson hopes the lawsuit will “require Capital to follow the law and provide the required information to patients.”
He’s also seeking an undisclosed monetary penalty.  “There has to be some sort of cost,' Ferguson said. 

“We are very disappointed to learn of the Office of the Attorney General’s recent filing against Capital Medical Center,” said Jeff Atwood, Capital's senior vice president of marketing and communications.

“When Capital learned of the Attorney General’s concerns with its financial assistance/charity care program, Capital made changes to that program in 2016. We were then in discussions with the AG's office and understood an amicable resolution was the next step. Even though Capital previously addressed the issues included in this lawsuit and is providing financial assistance/charity care to more individuals than state law requires, the Attorney General filed this lawsuit. We remain committed to serving all of the people within our community.”

Cox Media Group

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