Arkansas hospital sued thousands of patients over medical bills in the pandemic, including its own employees

“As Covid cases spread in 2020, visitors to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences were greeted by a colorful sign put up by grateful neighbors outside the university’s medical center: ‘Heroes Work Here,'” Casey Tolan and Ed Lavandera write over at CNN. “The university adopted the message in glossy promotional videos it posted online, introducing viewers to individual nurses, doctors, and health workers who described their jobs. … But at least a dozen of the ‘heroes’ that UAMS featured in online advertisements and other videos weren’t just employed by the university – they’ve also been sued by it.  UAMS, Arkansas’ flagship public health sciences university, has been aggressively suing thousands of former patients over medical debt in recent years, including hundreds of its own employees, a CNN investigation found.  Since 2019, UAMS has sued more than 8,000 patients to collect on unpaid medical bills, according to court records. It filed more debt collection lawsuits in recent years than any other plaintiff in the Arkansas court system other than the state tax office. The university’s use of the courts ballooned during the coronavirus pandemic. It filed 35 lawsuits in 2016 but more than 3,000 in 2021 – an average of nearly nine a day. CNN reviewed court documents from thousands of UAMS lawsuits and identified more than 500 defendants who were listed as working for the university itself. The employees ranged from nurses and patient services associates to clinical technicians and lab workers to housekeepers and cooks.” Casey Tolan and Ed Lavandera, “Arkansas hospital sued thousands of patients over medical bills during the pandemic, including hundreds of its own employees,” CNN.