Details about this story

• Source: Baltimore Sun
• Date: December 21, 2008
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: James Drew , Fred Schulte
• Topics: Courts , Health Care
• Data Types: Local Data
• Description/Excerpt: Hospitals received $921 million last year to cover costs of providing free and unpaid care, according to the most recent state records, and all hospital patients in Maryland contribute through the rates they pay. But an eight-month investigation by The Sun found that over the past five years some of Maryland's 46 nonprofit hospitals have received millions of surplus dollars from the payment system even as they sued tens of thousands of patients over unpaid bills. Many of these suits have been filed against patients in the poorest areas of the state.
• Methodology: See explainer