Patients Rising

The patients on the bankruptcy schedules in our investigation series may have been 340B patients at their treating hospitals. They were never told. They were never told what the hospital's charity-care policy was. They were never told they might have qualified. The bill came. Then the collections letters. Then the bankruptcy.

The hospital will write the balance off when the bankruptcy discharge enters.

The hospital may count the write-off toward "community benefit."

The patient gets seven to ten years of credit damage and the federal court record of having filed.

This is the program as it currently operates.