There are as many reasons for the medical-debt crisis as there are diagnostic codes that rule the medical-billing world. “It’s not like they’ve done anything wrong.” “It’s just life,” says Deborah Thorne, a sociologist at the University of Idaho who co-authored the latest bankruptcy study. Read: Americans are putting off medical treatments because they can’t pay About a fifth of Americans have a medical claim on their credit report, and the same proportion currently has a medical bill overdue. According to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau study from 2014, medical bills are the most common cause of unpaid bills sent to collection agencies. A 2016 study found that a third of cancer survivors had gone into debt as a result of their medical expenses, and 3 percent had filed for bankruptcy. The finding was only the latest in a long string of statistics suggesting that many Americans who have faced major health scares face significant financial setbacks afterward. (The survey respondents could choose multiple factors that contributed to their bankruptcy.) That was more than the percentage who cited home foreclosure or student loans. According to a survey published this month in the American Journal of Public Health, nearly 60 percent of people who have filed for bankruptcy said a medical expense “very much” or “somewhat” contributed to their bankruptcy. Medical debt is a uniquely American phenomenon, a burden that would be unfathomable in many other developed countries. Lockett was about to join the ranks of Americans who live with crippling amounts of medical debt. “But at the same time, that was really scary to me, not being able to talk.” “Dang, I knew I shouldn’t have gone to the hospital,” she remembers thinking. Lockett had been charged $26,203.62 total for “observation,” which the bill instructed her to pay within 20 days. The hospital performed tests and sent her home, where she recovered fully. It turned out that she had suffered a transient ischemic attack, or a mini-stroke. Paramedics sped her a few miles to Emory University Hospital Midtown, where she was held overnight. Lockett, who was 57 at the time and uninsured, didn’t know whether she could or should refuse the ambulance ride or decide which hospital it would take her to. A few people, noticing that something wasn’t right, walked Lockett to another room and called an ambulance.
She tried to speak into the mic, but the words that came out didn’t make sense.Ī friend walked up and grabbed Lockett by the arm. As she stepped up to the podium to give her remarks, she noticed that her words were slurring. The previous night, she had stayed up late making her presentation, and then deleted it by mistake. That firm has provided local EMS service for the past nine years.In April 2016, Venus Lockett was about to give a speech at an event she’d volunteered for near her home in Atlanta. He also shared plans to hire some of the employees who currently work at The Medical Center Navicent Health Emergency Medical Services and provide ambulance service in Milledgeville and Baldwin County. Since Hancock County also has contracted with Grady EMS to provide ambulatory medical care, any one of the three ambulances or all three in Sparta could serve as back-up units to the five ambulances in Baldwin County, if an emergency situation were to ever arise.Ĭompton attended last Wednesday night’s board meetings at Oconee Regional Medical Center and explained what Grady EMS plans to do once it takes over the ambulance service later this year. “These are brand new ambulances they are not refurbished or leased,” said Bill Compton, senior vice-president of Grady EMS. The Atlanta-based company, a separate entity of the well-known Grady Hospital, also located in the state’s capital city, has already spent more than $500,000 to purchase of five new ambulances that will be based in Baldwin County.
Terms of the new EMS agreement have not yet been released. 1.Īn official with the company submitted a transition plan to local hospital officials last week. Milledgeville and Baldwin County will become the newest territory to be served by Grady Emergency Medical Services when it begins providing coverage locally on Oct.
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