Utah HMO Responsible for 60% of Utah Bankruptcies

Politically and financially conservative Utah leads the United States in the number of personal bankruptcies per household. A recent study of Utah bankruptcy filings indicates that Utah's largest HMO, Intermountain Health Care, was responsible for nearly 60% of the bankruptcies studied. In addition, the study showed that IHC was responsible for forcing over 4,000 Utahans with catastrophic medical events into bankruptcy in 2003.

(PRWEB) January 28, 2004 --Is ultra-conservative Utah an example of the future of Republican health care policy put into practice?

Utah is #1 in the U.S. in personal bankruptcy filings. One in 36.7 of Utahs 790,000 households (21,000 households) filed personal bankruptcy last year. The national average is 1 in 80 households.

Many people have blamed improvident living, large families, even tithing for this paradoxical anomaly. There might be another explanation.

PAMMA (Patients Against Mandatory Medical arbitration, a Utah-based HMO watchdog group, studied the court records of the 1,741 Utahans who filed for bankruptcy in December of 2003. Sixty percent were medically related! Most of those were precipitated by non-profit/charitable Intermountain Health Care, its for profit collection agency ARC, and its for-hire Salt Lake City-based collection law firm Peterson & Simpson.

One third of the December 2003 filings (373) were related to catastrophic medical events (premature births, pediatric cancer, life threatening accidents, elderly afflictions, etc.) in which the patients medical insurance (IHC) would pay only a portion of the IHC-owned hospital, clinic, and physician generated medical bills.

To collect the difference, IHC sued the patients in district court, garnished wages, savings, retirement funds, and liened and foreclosed upon personal property (homes).

To forestall another cataclysmic event, the families were forced to protect their remaining assets through the protection of bankruptcy.

Based on the December numbers, IHCs aggressive collection practices contributed to over 12,000 Utah bankruptcies in 2003!

Four thousand (4,000) of those were Utah households who had experienced catastrophic health events.

Nationally, not-for-profit/charitable HMOs contribute to only 20% of personal bankruptcies instead of the 60% found in Utah.

If IHC collection practices were consistent with the other similar HMOs, there would have been 8,500 less bankruptcy filings in Utah last year. The per capita rate would have dropped from 1 in 36.7 households to 1 in 64 -- near the national average.

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