Tell LewisGale Hospital: No More Predatory Billing

Please read this message from Kevin, and support his 30 day fast to pay off unfair medical bills by signing this email the President of the hospital he visited.

Hi:

My name is Kevin Jarvis; I am currently a seminary student living in Elliston, Virginia. When I briefly visited LewisGale Hospital last October to have a dislocated shoulder put back in place, I had no idea that LewisGale would charge an extraordinary price for this simple procedure leaving me with a $1,500 deductible that my wife and I cannot pay without being unable to afford other basic necessities.

Like many, we are faced with mounting medical bills. Therefore, I have decided to pay LewisGale the only way I am able to: by fasting publicly for thirty days, using the money I would otherwise spend on food to pay off my medical bill.

LewisGale has a history of unethical price gouging. Such as a $26,000 charge for treatment of a cat bite. Health Corporation of America (HCA) – the parent company that owns LewisGale and over 160 other hospitals – has paid the largest fraud settlement ($2 billion) in the history of the United States for overcharging patients. It has become the most profitable hospital chain in the country by aggressively billing, turning patients with less profitable conditions away at their emergency rooms, and keeping staff levels dangerously low.

Having to choose between healthcare and food would not be possible in any other developed country in the world, where universal healthcare is provided at half the cost through a “single-payer” system, such as embodied in H.R. 676.

Until we find the moral courage as a country to recognize healthcare as basic to human dignity, instead of treating it as a commodity, please sign this email to the President of LewisGale Hospital asking him not to engage in predatory billing with patients who will be forced to choose between basic human necessities and receiving necessary care.

Sincerely,
Kevin Jarvis

A note from Healthcare-NOW!: Kevin decided to go on a 30-day fast on his own. He contacted Healthcare-NOW! and we do not suggest that others follow his example without taking necessary precautions.

Sources:
$26,000 Cat Bite, Roanoke Times
HCA’s record fraud settlement, Department of Justice
HCA’s rise to prominence and record profit levels through aggressive billing, New York Times