Posted January, 3 2022 by Amanda Dunker
2021 was a difficult year for New York patients. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to overwhelm people and systems, patients still faced astonishingly high medical bills and issues getting coverage – putting their finances and well-being at risk during a global crisis. As a result, 2021 saw a major surge in patients avoiding necessary medical […]
Posted December, 14 2021 by Amanda Dunker
Women are still struggling with surprise bills and making decisions about health care in the absence of meaningful price information, according to a focus group held by HCFANY. Several focus group participants described surprise bills as a big problem: Three described bills that should have been prevented by New York’s Surprise Bill Law. Some received […]
Posted December, 1 2021 by Amanda Dunker
Transgender people across the country face discrimination and other barriers to care which can make it difficult to achieve their health care goals. These barriers are there for New Yorkers, too, and came up during a HCFANY-led focus group looking into how LGBTQ+ New Yorkers are affected by medical debt. Participants described high medical bills […]
Posted November, 1 2021 by Amanda Dunker
Over a decade ago, New York State enacted Manny’s Law, which required New York’s non-profit hospitals to provide hospital financial assistance to low-income patients. The law is named after Manny Lanza, a young New Yorker with a brain condition who died after being precipitously discharged from a hospital because he was uninsured. Under Manny’s Law, […]