Cancer patients are among the growing number of sick people across the country who are being asked to shell out thousands of dollars for treatments they have not yet received.
Nancy Skinner, 68, and nearly a dozen other cancer patients in Las Cruces, New Mexico, who say they were denied care or required to pay out of pocket in advance, leaving them to fight for get cash or move to another state where care was affordable. It is more accessible.
Skinner’s doctor ordered a biopsy in 2022 to evaluate a growth on his leg, but Memorial Medical Center denied him insurance and told him he had to pay $2,000 or he would not undergo a potentially life-saving procedure. He had to take out a bank loan.
Meanwhile, Barbara Quarrell, 62, He said that although he had insurance, the hospital system had changed its policy to help cover the costs of cancer treatments in 2023 and would require him to pay out of pocket up front.
Barbara Quarrell was denied insurance and deprived of life-saving treatments for her vaginal cancer. She had to travel hundreds of miles to obtain affordable medical care, unable to pay the high costs out of her own pocket.
Mrs. Quarrell (right) worked at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces as a nurse for 29 years. When she gave the hospital’s financial office her insurance to pay for her chemotherapy and radiation, officials balked. She said: “They didn’t even try to make it work.”
He ended up traveling about 200 miles to Albuquerque to receive the treatment that saved his life: “They didn’t even try to get my insurance.”
Apollo Global Management, a private company, acquired the nonprofit Memorial Medical Center in 2018 and became part of the for-profit hospital chain Lifepoint Health.
Mrs. Quarrell, who was a nurse at Memorial Medical Center for 29 years, called this change the beginning of the end of affordable care, since for-profit entities often carry higher charges for patients.
Skinner said the hospital required him to pay the fee before undergoing the procedure.
Then, once he had the results, he required another scan. Again, the hospital said they wouldn’t schedule it until she paid another $1,600 out of pocket.
When he asked to set up a payment plan that would alleviate some of the financial burden, he was flatly denied. A friend had to pay the bill.
A growing number of hospital systems across the United States have begun requiring patients to pay for surgeries and other services in advance to prevent the patient from owing later payments.
About 15 percent of American households struggled to pay their medical bills in 2021, and that means hospitals aren’t getting paid.
The cost for hospitals to provide care is also increasing. Medicines administered in hospitals are becoming more expensive. worn out hospitals 115 billion dollars in medicines only in 2023.
And hospital labor costs increased by more than $42.5 billion between 2021 and 2023, reaching a total of $839 billion and representing almost 60% of average hospital expenses.
The massive increases that hospitals have to spend translate into massive increases in patients who have to pay.
In Las Cruces, José A García said NBC News that last year Memorial Medical Center forced him to pay $7,000 before he could receive treatment for kidney cancer because he had no insurance.
And Cynthia Arreola, 41, had to pay her insurance deductible upfront so she could get scans before receiving treatment for her breast cancer.
Memorial Medical Center, a nonprofit organization, was acquired by Apollo Global Management in 2018 and became part of the Lifepoint Health hospital chain. Shortly after, policies changed allowing cancer patients to receive care regardless of their financial situation.
She said: “It came down to, ‘If you don’t have money, you can’t get the scans or the MRI.’
“I had to ask my family to help me get that money and get the tests done so I could start my chemotherapy.”
NBC News detailed the hospital system’s repeated denials of care, which appear to contradict state law covering the land on which the hospital operates.
Yolanda Díaz, founder of the non-profit organization CARE Las Cruces, said: “When a hospital denies and delays necessary health care services, it is harming the residents it is supposed to care for, creating an imminent danger to the community. life and safety”.
Under state law, denying care could violate the hospital’s lease. State law also requires hospitals to accept “indigent” patients seeking care they cannot pay for, including cancer care.
The hospital must discuss payment plans with patients or cost-sharing agreements.
But in 2023, the hospital’s indigent care policy changed to exclude cancer care, having verbally notified city and county officials, even though the hospital’s lease in the past required such notification. will be presented in writing.
Memorial Chief Financial Officer Laura Thomas insisted that Memorial does not turn away patients, saying that “many of the claims made about Memorial’s practices, conduct and communications with patients are factually inaccurate.”
At the same time, NBC News has released the names of patients who say they have encountered obstacles like those of Ms. Skinner and Ms. Quarrell, and several patients have since received apologies from hospital leaders (although they have not admitted wrongdoing). ).
Ms. Thomas said of these apologies: “If what a person takes away, from an interaction with us, is that their care was delayed or denied, we will do everything we can to make it right.”
Hospital leaders said they have always informed city and county governments about policy changes that would limit affordable health care, however the change to the indigent care policy first discussed in 2016 did not appear. in official documents until 2023.
The Las Cruces City Council has said the hospital violates its terms of agreement with the government and has invited its chief executive to council meetings over the years to get answers, but he has never shown up.
Council member Becky Corran said, “It’s a very clear sign that they don’t care about the community.”
Memorial, for its part, insisted to NBC News that it does not deny care.
According to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Memorial charged nearly seven times what it actually cost to care for patients, double what nonprofit hospitals charge nationwide.
And Memorial is an outlier even among for-profit hospitals in the U.S., which typically charge less than five times the cost of care on average.
Medicare costs per beneficiary at Memorial (the amount of money the hospital asks the government to reimburse) are higher than the national average and nearly 20 percent above the state average, meaning the hospital is underperforming. costing the government more money than other hospitals for a similar cost. or lower quality of care.
Mrs. Quarrell is among several affected patients who detailed their ordeal at a city council meeting last year in an effort to force hospital leaders to take action.
Faced with bills piling up while living in Albuquerque for a few months to receive a long list of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Mrs. Quarrell applied for Medicaid, the government insurance program for poor and disabled people.
“I was able to complete all of my treatments and I can say that I am a survivor, no thanks to the health system and my community,” she told the council.
She added: ‘I feel that after being a nurse for 29 years, I should not have to leave Las Cruces, Doña Ana County to receive my treatment. All hospitals are for profit. I had no choice.
“If we had hospitals that were not private, non-profit, it would be different because they would have to accept you as a patient.”
But given the pace at which private companies are buying up hospitals (right now, nearly a quarter of New Mexico hospitals are controlled by private equity firms) there is little indication that Memorial will back off its change of ownership. policy or that hospital acquisitions slow down. .