Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
James Paul Schmidt
Lt. George Castro of Metro Police's Violent Crimes division speaks with the news media at 4750 W. Oakey Blvd. on Wednesday afternoon to discuss James Paul Schmidt, a homeless man who was beaten into a coma in November. Police have exhausted leads in the case and are hoping family or friends of Schmidt will step forward to help.
Sun Archives
- UMC board chairman absent as hospital’s future discussed (1-17-2010)
- Dose of Rogers for ailing UMC (1-14-2010)
- Rory Reid announces effort to make UMC a teaching hospital (1-13-2010)
- Why troubled UMC is in County Commission chairman’s sights (1-5-2010)
- Why troubled UMC is in County Commission chairman’s sights (1-5-10)
- Rory Reid’s county rescue plan serves to deflect political opponents’ jabs (1-5-10)
- Commission Chairman Rory Reid unveils cost-cutting plan for county (1-4-09)
- Clark County cost-cutting ideas center on salaries (12-30-09)
Reader poll
Two hours before sunrise on Nov. 30, a police officer and a police dog stumbled upon 60-year-old James Paul Schmidt suffering from a severe head injury in a Central Las Vegas alley.
Schmidt, a homeless man, had been beaten. He was taken to University Medical Center, where police said he suffered a brain injury and was in a coma.
Due to federal law intended to protect patient privacy, hospital officials won’t say how high the medical bills are for Schmidt or whether he has insurance, which is unlikely, but, given the circumstances, his hospital bill is bound to be huge.
Even weeklong hospital stays for severe brain-injury victims can run up bills in excess of $100,000. Schmidt has been at the county hospital for seven weeks and counting, and police said they have been unable to find his next of kin.
It begs the question: Can whoever caused his injuries be held responsible for his hospital bills so that taxpayers aren’t?
It may sound cold to be concerned about the cost, but the county hospital is facing an $82 million deficit, and as a top-tier trauma center, it takes care of many of the region’s most severely injured crime victims, many of whom are uninsured.
If a victim recovers or has relatives willing to pursue a lawsuit, that could possibly force some money out of the person who inflicted the injuries, of course. But what about a case in which a crime victim does not recover and has no relatives stepping forward?
Legal experts say there is at least an outside chance that UMC could successfully recoup its costs from a perpetrator, provided a Nevada court found that the hospital was justified in filing the lawsuit and the criminal offender had money or other assets worth pursuing.
But UMC does not sue the criminals who cause injuries to uninsured patients because the hospital believes it does not have legal standing to do so. Instead, the hospital resorts to other sources in an attempt to recover at least some of its costs.
“If the victim did not have insurance, we would help them by trying to get them covered either under social services or Medicaid,” UMC spokeswoman Danita Cohen says. “If those pay sources were not available, the state has a Victims of Crime fund.”
That fund will pay up to $20,000 per patient, so it stands to reason that the fund covers only a small percentage of the costs UMC incurs for treating indigent victims of crime, Cohen says. The hospital does not keep track of the amount of unpaid bills it absorbs each year for treating victims of crimes.
UMC does have the option under state law to attach a lien on any judgment that the victim — or his estate, should he die — receives after successfully suing the perpetrator.
“If the victim sues the perpetrator and there is a settlement, we will try to recoup money to pay for the bills,” Cohen says.
But UNLV Boyd School of Law Professor Keith Rowley said there may be little incentive for the victim or his estate to sue if they know that most of the money would go to the hospital.
“Why do all the legwork if the hospital will end up with the money?” Rowley said. “Likewise, if the perpetrator is ‘judgment-proof’ — that is, he or she has insufficient assets to pay a judgment or a settlement — it may not be worth the victim’s or the personal representative’s time and effort to sue the perpetrator.”
Rowley also said the hospital should never be allowed to force the victim to sue or compel the patient to assign that right to the hospital.
The last resort is for the hospital to sue the perpetrator on its own if the victim declines to do so. This is where UMC draws the line because, as Cohen says, “we don’t go after them (perpetrators) because there is no legal basis for us to go after them.” Mark Rothstein, a professor who specializes in health law at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, said he is unaware of any public hospital suing a perpetrator, though he found the possibility intriguing. He said several things would have to fall into place for such a lawsuit to succeed.
One, of course, is that the perpetrator would have to have money, a house or other assets to help pay for the medical bills — or the strong possibility of making enough money in the future to make sufficient payment on the judgment. Another is that state laws would have to be favorable toward the hospital.
“Public hospitals have all sorts of patients who can’t pay their bills because they are the health care provider of last resort,” Rothstein says. “It’s one of those bad debts that public hospitals have to swallow.”
Another health law expert, attorney Thomas Elcock of the Boston firm Prince Lobel Glovsky and Tye, says public hospitals might be able to make a valid claim against the perpetrator if a large amount of unpaid medical bills is at stake.
Rowley and fellow Boyd professors say they are unaware of any written opinions from the Nevada Supreme Court indicating that the court has taken a position on whether a hospital can sue a perpetrator for unpaid medical bills.
But Rowley says UMC could argue “unjust enrichment” on the part of the perpetrator.
“Not making the perpetrator pay for the medical bills lets him or her off the hook too easily at the expense of the hospital,” Rowley says.
I wonder if anyone ever thought, "If we charge $20 for a band-aid we're not going to get our money. However if we charge a buck, people just might make an effort to pay their medical bills". Being philisophical however read into this and maybe, just maybe, someone might get the message. And Tort Reform? That 20 dollar band-aid is going to the Lawyers and the Insurance Companies. Both Lobbys have already paid off the GOP's and DEM's. An Independant
if we charge a buck, the wait at UMC would be days, not 8 to 15 hours. It is bad, real bad. The competence of the County Commission should be called into play. The former boss of UMC still has not been convicted for the millions he gave to his friends from Chicago. No one is accountable for the hole in the dike and whats even more scary, no one has their thumb in the hole and the hole is getting bigger. The commissions inablity to act quickly is costing us tens of millions, a pittance to them, but a tax to us.
Talk radio hate-mongers like Sean Inssanity (in my opinion) - drive this nonsense because they contend that everyone has health care: "just go to the emergency room." Bush would belch out the same lie. BK hospitals are a result.
The simplest solution would be to have a sales or VAT on food. All food would be taxed (not just junk food) People on food stamps would be somewhat shielded from the taxes. Just as highways are paid for by a gas tax medical care would be paid for by a food tax.
Medical care for the homeless is a drop in the bucket compared to the high costs associated with caring for illegal aliens.
Anchor babies alone are breaking us. Not only in medical bills but good old uncle sam writes em a big fat check every single month for every baby they have. That's why social security is going broke sooner than expected.
They turned it into a welfare program.
I would be willing to bet at least 50% of the $82 million deficit is because of illegals. Get rid of them and there goes half of our problem, then we can start taking care of the unfortunate Americans!
Hi, folks.
Much like necessity is the mother of invention, so it is, too, with tragedy. That's why I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you about exciting new career opportunities with The United Brotherhood of Spangers International (TUBSI).
Here at TUBSI (copyright pending, and in no way associated with those panhandler/teamster upstarts) we foresee huge growth in the--begging for spare change--employment sector. Especially here in Las Vegas.
Our pilot program in San Francisco has been wildly successful! Prime intersections and freeway on ramps that were once the sight of contentious and sometimes violent battles for "turf rights" are now a thing of the past. Our (Chicago trained) business agents make sure of it.
After apprenticeship, our dues paying entrepreneurs can once again enjoy the fruits of their former middle class lives. Since we offer health insurance and generous pension benefits, our members don't have to wanders aimlessly among the wreckage of this once great empire, wondering what happened to the "old school"-type jobs that they used to have in factories and such. They are now taxpaying, law abiding citizens, and more importantly, no longer a burden to the rest of society.
Thanks for your consideration, and remember, TUBSI does not discriminate against age, race, gender, locality, or physical/mental disabilities.
And this situation will not change if UMC becomes a non-profit teaching hospital. Federal law requires all hospitals to take patients whether they have insurance or not.
Amen, Fred, lv702 and Planetearthcalling. Good to see that somebody gets it.
The major problem is illegal immigration; fix it and you fix a number (not all) of the issues in our health care system. Instead of fixing immigration, our Senate Majority Leader is busy passing so-called "health care reform", which is a euphemism for new restrictions on decent health insurance that will make it an unprofitable business and thus "force" takeover of insurance by the government to finally achieve what liberals want, socialized medicine.
Harry, why don't you and your majority fix illegal immigration? Is it that you are trying to co-opt the Hispanic vote? How does it feel to look in the mirror knowing that you are selling out America, turning it into a third-world country, all for political power?
Illegal immigration: the scapegoat for all of our problems. Health care is in serious trouble all over this country in places with high numbers of immigrants and low numbers of immigrants, so how can you blame them for this problem?
Our hospitals act as one of the pulses indicating the health of a society. There is no room for hospitals to make a reasonable profit if they are forced to provide a panoply of care for patients who refuse to participate in the system. Odds are that even if the healthcare reform legislation passed this fellow would not subscribe to the plan and this fact pattern would still persist.
If it is the job of the safety net to protect the weakest in society then we should strive through all reasonable means to keep that number to its absolute minimum. And better still those that have some skills to contribute in return for such assistance should be required to do so. And if a part of that equation is stricter control over illegal aliens then it must be acted upon.
To this one guy. You're correct but the border states have acutely higher percentages of uninsured. That number is skewed by the presence of illegal aliens.
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparet...
On Aug. 16, 2009, the R-J reported that UMC loses over $20 million annually due to kidney dialysis provided to illegal aliens. That is one-fourth of this year's deficit. That is only what is reported for one program. Imagine what the numbers would be if all service lines were included in the analysis. Do not tell me that illegals are unfairly made the scapegoat.
And by the way, I wasn't blaming illegal aliens, I was blaming Congress, who has the responsibility to protect our borders, but refuses to do so due to politics.
I will point out one thing. If we do end up providing universal health care, this particular problem goes away and the government will pay for people like this man. Too bad, the current plan, while it is "mandatory" and the government will underwrite converage for the poor, is not truly universal. The truly indigent (and many of the poor) will never bother to sign up for the totally free coverage for lack of knowledge or initiative. Some others will pay the fines, or maybe will not (how will the government go after millions who just do not pay the fine?)
I suppose we are screwed unless we really go for single-payer universal coverage.
If the emergency room did not charge 10times what something would normally cost , They would only have a 8 million dollar loss but then how could they hide 75million in excess charges then
Thanks for the specifics Randy. And if I recall that $20 million was just for THREE patients. What we need is a government that can control our borders. If they can't control the borders then there's little chance they can control this mess.
thisoneguy, Illegal good...Gringo baaaaaaad. Listen, we all got it the first time. You say health care is in trouble all over this country whether there is a high number of illegals or a low number of illegals and I agree with you. That being said, That's all the more reason to stop allowing the complete and utter disregard for our country's laws and borders. Since when is this country responsible for footing the bill for individuals who don't belong here?
We foot that bill all of the time my friend, we can afford it - I assure you. And way to go on spelling 'border' correctly.
go to the victims of crime compensation office at 2200 rancho drive #220, currently Bryan Nix/ coordinator hired 2 of his best friends in the whole wide world, to handle the budget for victims. the budget is 8 million, his friends get 6 million in pay, and the measly 2 million is divided among the estimated 20,000.00 victims yearly. They now pay up to $150,000.00 for serious injuries!