In This Okla. Town, Almost Everyone Knows Someone Who's Been Sued By The Hospital: NPR

NPR, Jan. 19, 2024. - Ed.

McALESTER, Okla. — It took little more than an hour for Deborah Hackler to dispense with the tall stack of debt collection lawsuits that McAlester Regional Medical Center recently brought to small-claims court in this Oklahoma farm community. Hackler, a lawyer who sues patients on behalf of the hospital, buzzed through 51 cases, all but a handful uncontested, as is often the case. She bantered with the judge as she secured nearly $40,000 in judgments, plus 10% in fees for herself, according to court records.

It's a payday the hospital and Hackler have shared frequently over the past 3 decades, records show.

The records indicate McAlester Regional Medical Center and an affiliated clinic have filed close to 5,000 debt collection cases since the early 1990s, most often represented by the father-daughter law firm of Hackler & Hackler. Some of McAlester's 18,000 residents have been taken to court multiple times. A deputy at the county jail and her adult son were each sued recently, court records show.

New mothers facing bills after giving birth said they compare stories of their legal run-ins with the medical center.

The hospital has sued Sherry McKee, a dorm monitor at a tribal boarding school outside McAlester, 3 times. Most recently it sued over a $3,375 bill for what she said turned out to be vertigo. "There's a lot that's not right," McKee said after the hearing. In recent years, major health systems in VA, NC, and elsewhere have stopped suing patients following news reports about lawsuits. Several states, such as MD and NY, have restricted the legal actions hospitals can take against patients.

But with some 100 million people in the U.S. burdened by health care debt, medical collection cases still clog courtrooms across the US. In places like McAlester, a hospital's debt collection machine can hum away quietly for years, helped along by powerful people in town. An effort to limit hospital lawsuits failed in the Okla. Legislature in 2021. In McAlester, the lawsuits have provided business for some, such as a local collection agency. But for many patients and their families, the lawsuits can take a devastating toll, sapping wages, emptying retirement accounts, and upending lives...
- More, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/01/19/1225272050/hospital-lawsuit-medical-debt-collection-oklahoma