EVERETT, Wash. — Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Providence confirmed Thursday an agreement has been reached regarding charity care practices at the healthcare system's organizations.
A lawsuit the Office of the Attorney General filed is resolved as Providence agrees to forgive more than $137 million in medical debt and refund more than $20 million to patients who likely qualified for free or reduced-cost care.
Under Washington's charity care law, hospitals must provide either free or reduced-cost care to patients who qualify, with a sliding scale based on their income and the size of the hospital system. Hospitals must inform patients about the option and verify whether they are eligible for discounts.
The Office of the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Providence for failing to make patients fully aware of their options, which it said, "created barriers to affordable care for thousands of the most vulnerable Washingtonians." This agreement resolves the lawsuit.
"There is an easy way and a hard way, okay, but these cases make me angry," Ferguson said in a news conference Thursday. "Nobody should be going through what you went through. We have laws for a purpose and it makes me angry that hospitals that know better are ignoring the law anyway."
Providence will forgive $137.2 million in debt for 65,217 people, with $125.8 million of those charges already resolved. The average write-off for those waiting is more than $900, according to the Office of the Attorney General. The average refund is around $478.
The Office of the Attorney General said qualifying patients who received care at Providence-affiliated hospitals between 2018 and October 2023 will receive a letter informing them of the resolution.
Kevin and Evangeline Holloman were among the patients who faced issues regarding the act. After their child was born, they tried to go on a payment plan and were ultimately sent to collections.
"Luckily we were able to use our entire emergency savings to pay off our bill but we had to restart from ground zero with our kid and having to set aside money again in case anything were to happen," Evangeline said. "Having your security ripped out from under you like that is really hard."
In a news release, Providence CFO Greg Hoffman said the agreement reaffirms Providence's commitment to serving the most vulnerable by promoting the availability of financial assistance and simplifying the application process.
"We have already begun providing payments with interest to individuals and are continuing to review our files to ensure we have not missed anyone," Hoffman said.
Hoffman said these steps will help patients spend more time focusing on their health and less time worrying about medical bills or insurance coverage.
Providence said in recent years, it has conducted a review of "financial assistance policies, billing-related communications to patients, financial aid applications, and training materials for revenue cycle caregivers" and implemented a new process to write off Medicaid account balances and avoid Medicaid patients being incorrectly sent to collections in the future.