Amid Massive Hospital Sell-Off, Corporate Giant Continues Suing Patients

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/26/ [login to see] /amid-massive-hospital-sell-off-corporate-giant-continues-suing-patients
A knock came on the door of Cantwell's East Nashville apartment early this year. She hadn't been vaccinated yet and says she wasn't really answering the door to strangers. So she didn't.

But then several more attempts came over the course of a week. Eventually she masked up and opened. A legal assistant served her a lawsuit; she was summoned to appear in court.

"I couldn't believe someone — someone? a corporation? a company? — was doing this during a pandemic," Cantwell says.

It started with a hospital visit in May 2019.

Cantwell was admitted for a short stay at the Tennova Healthcare-Lebanon facility owned at the time by Community Health Systems, a publicly traded company headquartered in Franklin, Tenn. Her insurance covered most of the stay, but it still left her with $2,700 to pay.

Nearly a year later, she was in a financial position to start chipping away at the bill. She went online to pay but couldn't find the hospital or its payment portal.