A nonprofit health system in the Midwest, Allina Health System, is accused of withholding care from patients who have unpaid medical bills. Although the healthcare provider’s hospitals will treat anyone in emergency rooms, other services can be cut off for indebted patients, including children and those with chronic illnesses like diabetes and depression. Patients are not allowed to return until they pay off their debts entirely. Allina has an explicit policy for cutting off patients who owe money for services they received at the health system’s 90 clinics. The policy instructs staff to cancel appointments for patients with at least $4,500 of unpaid debt, and how to lock their electronic health records to prevent future appointment scheduling. Doctors and patients have expressed their concerns about the policy. Many also pointed out that nonprofit hospitals like Allina get enormous tax breaks in exchange for providing care for the poorest people in their communities, including free or reduced-cost care to patients with low incomes. However, in 2020, Allina spent less than half of 1% of its expenses on charity care, well below the nationwide average of about 2% for nonprofit hospitals.
