Clinic workers imprisoned patient who couldn't pay

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Clinic workers imprisoned patient who couldn't pay

By GEORGE CHIDI
Staffers at a Duluth medical practice shuttered their office Friday amid charges of false imprisonment for allegedly locking a patient in a room when concerns arose about her ability to pay the bill.

Dr. John Drew Laurusonis and office assistants Leslie Ann York and Alexander Acquah of the Doctors Medical Center were indicted this week. The three face arraignment July 3 on the charge.

Police say Frances Bales, 36, of Duluth, was held against her will on Oct. 4, 2007, when she went to the clinic seeking treatment for arm pain. An attorney for Laurusonis denied on Friday that the internal medicine practitioner did anything illegal.

"I'm really sad that a good man got indicted for not committing a crime," said Lawrenceville-based attorney Richard Ryczek. "I think this will be resolved in his favor."

Staffers at the clinic in a busy Duluth shopping center locked up Friday as news reporters approached. Calls to York and Acquah for comment were not returned. Bales' attorney, Joseph Fried, said Friday she was told initially that the visit would cost $98. Bales had been visiting from out-of-state and didn't have health insurance, Fried said.
"They took her debit card and her driver's license at the reception desk," Fried said. "She figured with X-rays it might be a little more."

Instead, after tests, Bales was charged $755, Fried said.

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Read more: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/06/20/duluth_clinic_captive.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Medical fees are highway robbery.

I had some x-rays done and it was around $150. They should also charge them with attempted rape.

http://www.star-telegram.com/817/story/606891.html

Hospital-Debtors Prison Combo

http://www.star-telegram.com/734/story/606891.html

Boosted by tax funding other local hospitals don't get, JPS has been racking up fat surpluses -- nearly $97 million last year alone.

<snip>

In the past six years, Tarrant County property taxpayers have anted up $1.3 billion on the premise that the mission of the public hospital is to treat the indigent and needy. But a four-month Star-Telegram examination found that the Hospital District has squandered opportunities to improve care and compassion as it has chased insured patients pursued by every other Tarrant hospital.

As trash cans overflowed, so did the district's bank accounts. The district's investments swelled to $381 million last year, earning $22 million in interest. But nurses scrambled during surgeries for instruments that low-paid assistants couldn't identify.

Over five years, JPS grabbed $232 million from one federal program for the poor, and administrators said they banked much of it. Meanwhile, needy Tarrant County residents sometimes waited months for appointments, and others went without care because they could not afford the co-payments.

I thought what was in SiCKO was bad. But..... $1.3 billion in cash?? $97 million last year alone??? But some people can't afford the damn co-pay?

They're thieves. That's the only word I can use and be polite.

I can't even imagine, but I think we're going to see more of this sort of thing.

People being locked in or their children being denied medical care if the parent has tattoos..(I wish I was making that up.)

And especially the hospital. I'd rather be sick and possibly die at home or work than be treated like pig manure and held hostage by these people. Seeing people's health and lives as dollar signs really explains a lot about a society.

Even when they sneeringly accept a cash-paying customer (after mockingly getting payment up front), they load the person up with prescription drugs, for which they get perks and kickbacks, that cause other illnesses or conditions or have bad side effects because of lax testing standards and sheer greed. Doctors to me seem nothing more than middlemen between me and the drug companies.

I don't have insurance and figured if I could find a doctor I'd be treated like a leper, but after discovering the bullseye rash associated with Lyme Disease on my midriff, I knew I had to bite the bullet. The second doctor I called agreed to see me a mere 20 minutes after I called. When I went to the busy office, they saw me within 5 minutes. The doctor was a very sweet woman with her own health insurance woes and completely understood my problem. She spent 15 minutes with me, prescribed the appropriate treatment, and charged me a mere $45.00. She even agreed to take me on as a patient should I have any other problems. The icing on the cake happened when I got to the pharmacy. After finding I wasn't insured, they more than halved the price of the antibiotics. I feel as if I experienced the rarest of the rare - compassionate care at a reasonable price. If only they were all like that.

I avoid doctors like the plague anymore. Finally broke down and went to one last week because respiratory problems keep worsening.

Turns out that along with my chronic bronchitis, I now have asthma and a regular old respiratory infection. The doctor spent more than 30 minutes with me--practically unheard of anymore. She gave me a sample inhaler, and then because my husband just lost his job and we're going to be losing our health insurance, she wrote me out prescriptions for 90 days worth of my current meds and everything else I could possibly need. Turns out the insurance co. wouldn't approve filling more than 30 days worth at a time, but she tried. She was very personable and compassionate, as was her staff.
They practically begged me to go get a pap smear and mammogram before the insurance was gone, but said in case you don't, here's the name of a clinic that gives free mammograms.

Don't know about you guys, but when someone is that nice to me anymore, it about makes me want to cry.......especially with the mortgage co. threatening to foreclose, don't want to hear your "excuses", and everything else.

Last week there was something in the paper about a local anesthesiologist who can't afford insurance. The doctor I went to on Monday only has catastrophic coverage. Bottom line, when the doctors can't afford it, something drastic needs to happen. Hope you're feeling better.

There's so much profit in it ! And the prices are only tough for 90% of the population to handle, so what the hell. Let them drink Gatorade!