Some hospitals rake in high profits while their patients are loaded with medical debt

Aerial view of downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Some hospitals in Texas and around the U.S. are seeing high profits, even as their bills force patients into debt. Of the nation's 20 most populous counties, none has a higher concentration of medical debt than Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth.

But patients aren't sharing in the good times. Of the nation's 20 most populous counties, none has a higher concentration of medical debt than Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth. Second is Dallas County,The mismatched fortunes of hospitals and their patients reach well beyond this corner of Texas. "Medical debt is forcing people here to make incredibly agonizing choices," said Toby Savitz, programs director at Pathfinders, a Fort Worth nonprofit that assists people with credit problems. Savitz estimated that at least half their clients have medical debt. Many are scrimping on food, neglecting rent, even ending up homeless, she said,"and this is not just low-income people.

Three months later, after he was diagnosed with diabetes, another complication led to another hospitalization. In December 2020, covid-19 put him there yet again."I look back at that year and feel lucky I even survived," Zipprich said.David Zipprich, a Fort Worth financial consultant and grandfather, was forced out of retirement after hospitalizations left him owing more than $200,000.

Last year, Zipprich returned to work, taking a job in New Jersey that required he commute back and forth to Texas. He recently quit, citing the strain of so much travel. He's now job hunting again."I never thought this would happen to me," he said.Even small debts can have potentially dangerous consequences, discouraging patients from seeking needed care.

But Smith and other hospital leaders point to billions of dollars of free or discounted care that hospitals nationwide provide every year."Hospitals have been pretty darn generous," said Stephen Love, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council."If other parts of the community did as much as hospitals, we wouldn't be in this problem."

When Texas Health Resources, a Dallas-based nonprofit system with more than $5 billion in annual revenue, opened a new hospital tower in Fort Worth earlier this year, Barclay Berdan, the system's chief executive, said the building"reinforces Texas Health's long-standing commitment to the Fort Worth community." The nine-story, $300 million tower is one of more than a half-dozen new hospitals and major expansions around the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 2018.

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