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Hospitals Suing Patients: How Hospitals Use N.C. Courts To Collect Medical Debt, Barak Richman, Sara Sternberg Greene, Sean Chen, Julie Havlak
Hospitals Suing Patients: How Hospitals Use N.C. Courts To Collect Medical Debt, Barak Richman, Sara Sternberg Greene, Sean Chen, Julie Havlak
Faculty Scholarship
From January 2017 through June 2022, North Carolina hospitals brought 5,922 lawsuits to collect medical debt against 7,517 patients and family members. These actions were brought in small claims court, state district, and state superior courts, and generated 3,449 judgments for hospitals totaling $57.3 million, or an average of $16,623 per judgment.
Hospitals took advantage of North Carolina’s allowance of 8% annual interest on judgments, including by refiling actions to sustain judgments issued ten years earlier. These interest charges and other additional fees totaled an estimated $20.3 million, or 35.4% of the judgments awarded. Some patients faced more than a …