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Good morning. An Australian musician recently spent nearly two weeks in an American hospital after breaking her back on tour. Her dispatch is surprisingly heartwarming, except for the quintessentially American medical bill she received.
Inside the lucrative ERs that can turn you away
For decades, it’s been illegal in the U.S. for emergency departments to turn away patients just because they can’t pay. But that applies only to hospitals that contract with Medicare. In a new investigation, STAT’s Tara Bannow uncovers how Nutex Health, a Houston-based system, exploits this loophole to enrich itself and its investors.
At one Nutex emergency room, a receptionist turned away an uninsured patient who arrived with the telltale signs of a heart attack but was unable to pay upfront. At another facility, a family of five realized their insurance was charged $21,000 for Covid shots that had been advertised as free. And in recent years, almost all of Nutex’s bills have been funneled through the No Surprises Act federal arbitration process, which is meant to be a last resort.
