This investigation found that a nonprofit hospital in Mississippi was suing thousands of low-wage and poor Mississippians – including more than a hundred of its own employees – over a three-year period.
St. Dominic is one of the state’s biggest hospitals and one of the largest employers in the Jackson metro area. As a nonprofit, it had a legal responsibility to provide free and reduced care to low-income patients, but thousands of poor Mississippians were still getting billed and sued. The hospital’s own tax records show St. Dominic estimated it improperly billed millions of dollars to poor patients year after year.
The people sued often worked in low-wage industries like fast food and retail. St. Dominic employed two debt collection firms that garnished wages, damaged peoples’ credit, and seized money from patients’ bank accounts. These lawsuits often inflated patients’ bills by a third or more with attorney’s fees, court costs and 8% interest rates.
A woman recovering from a car accident had to declare bankruptcy because St. Dominic sued her. A woman recovering from breast cancer feared going back to the hospital for regular cancer screenings because St. Dominic sued her. She started cleaning the building where she worked as a receptionist to pay down her debt. A third woman was denied a home loan after she was wrongfully sued over a St. Dominic medical bill and her credit was damaged.
St. Dominic continued suing patients and garnishing their wages throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the federal government gave the hospital millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds.