Despite State Measures, New Yorkers Fear Health Care Over Medical Debt Lawsuits

The hospital told him not to worry about the cost. Since Gosselin didn’t have insurance, he qualified for financial assistance, which brought his bill down to just shy of $5,000 — a sum higher than most Americans have in savings. Gosselin still couldn’t pay.

So in 2020, the hospital sued him through the medical law debt collector agency Overton, Russell, Doerr, and Donovan, LLP, or ORDD. Gosselin said he repeatedly tried to set up a $20 monthly payment plan, but the agency declined. Instead, it began garnishing $100 a month from his paycheck.

The wage garnishing stopped when he changed jobs. Gosselin believes that was because of a bill Governor Kathy Hochul signed last year, which makes it illegal to garnish wages and place liens on people’s homes to cover medical debt. She has yet to indicate whether or not she’ll sign another bill, passed by the state legislature in June, to ban reporting medical debt to credit bureaus.

Despite these measures, many patients around New York remain wary that hospital fees could bankrupt them. Neither piece of legislation stops hospitals from suing patients to collect medical debt in the first place. And the state has not assigned an agency to enforce the ban on garnishing wages, leaving it up to the hospitals to honor the spirit of the law.

https://nysfocus.com/2023/10/27/medical-debt-lawsuit-albany-health