Quote:I'm not sure what has changed in the 10 years since I lived in Jacksonville, but the former University Hospital (now Shands IIRC) was underwritten by the City of Jacksonville, and regularly admitted indigent patients for more than emergency care. If the patient could not pay, the debt was written off.

 

I have a family member that was an executive there. I can tell you that the debt is/was not normally written off.

 

I did hear stories from him of people who were illegal aliens needing emergency treatment. Shands would pay for the treatment and work with INS to get them deported. This sometimes cost the hospital tens of thousands of dollars. But they knew in the long run it probably helped them never see that person again. And they were never getting a dime anyway.

 

When my daughter was born, we had to go to Shands because my wife had a medical issue and that was the only hospital able to treat it. It was like being in a prison compared to when my son was born at Baptist South.

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