Resurrection Health Care and Advocate Health Care, two of Illinois' largest hospital systems, have agreed to resolve lawsuits that alleged that the systems' hospitals overcharged tens of thousands of uninsured patients and denied adequate financial assistance to others, the Chicago Tribune reports. A Cook County, Ill., judge on Monday approved Resurrection's settlement, while Advocate's settlement is expected to receive court approval in March.

As part of the settlement, Resurrection, which has eight hospitals in the Chicago area and is the state's largest chain of Catholic medical centers, and Advocate, which has nine hospitals in the state, will recalculate the bills of patients and reimburse patients who should have received discounted or no-cost medical care. Resurrection has sent letters to 220,000 patients and Advocate has sent letters to 170,000 patients to notify them about the terms of the settlement.

Under Resurrection's settlement, all uninsured patients also will be eligible for a 25% discount and financial assistance on current or outstanding bills. Resurrection also implemented broader discounts for uninsured patients and capped the amount that they would be required to pay annually for health care services. According to the Tribune, the payment limits are "more generous" than a new state law -- which caps hospital payments for people without health insurance at 25 percent of income -- that takes effect in April. As part of the settlement, Resurrection does not admit wrongdoing. Jeannie Frey, senior vice president of legal affairs, said Resurrection settled the suit because of "the cost of litigation and the toll it takes internally on an organization."

A spokesperson for Advocate said that an ombudsman has been hired to address disputes over financial aid between patients and hospitals. The spokesperson added that the hospital system does not plan to implement any immediate changes to its policies (Graham, Chicago Tribune, 1/14).

Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.