(NY Times image)

I’ve been impressed lately with good coverage about patients who linger in the hospital and rack up staggering bills despite the fact that this is likely bad for the patient and very bad for the health care system. The New York Times was the latest last weekend with a story about a man who spent 19 months in the hospital and rang up a $1.4 million bill. 

Reporter John Leland writes: “They are the forgotten people in the health care system — uninsured, usually undocumented, without resources and stuck in the system’s most expensive course of care. Some are abandoned by or estranged from relatives; some belong in rehabilitation centers, where care is much cheaper, but because of their immigration status they are not enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare, so the places will not take them.”

In July, many media covered a $9.2 million hospital claim against the relatives of a woman who died after spending FIVE years at Tampa General Hospital. 

“That would have to be the biggest bill I’ve heard of,” said Alan Levine, a division president at the Naples-based hospital chain Health Management Associates,according to AP. 

“I’ve seen more than $1 million,” he said. “But not 9 million.”

Last but not least, Yanick Rice Lamb wrote extensively on this topic for Heart & Soul magazine as part of an AHCJ fellowship. Her piece, Stuck in the Hospital: Some Uninsured Patients Wait Weeks and Months for Long-Term Care, explored solutions being used by some hospitals to address the problem.

Rice Lamb described how she crafted her piece on AHCJ’s website (membership required to access article.)