FRONT STREE HOSPITAL UNINSURED CHARGES AND COLLECTIONS uS RICHARD "Dickie" Scruggs, and what does he have to do name, but uith hospital finance? You may not be familiar with th vill undoubtedly read about his work and its influence on how you tients are billed and the manner in which the bills are collected. You see, Dickie Scruggs runs a law firm in Pascagoula, Mis- sisippi, that made huge amounts of money out of multibillior setlements from asbestos and tobacco companies. Now, his law firm is taking on the not-for-profit hospital industry. (To find out about his more recent activities, both good and bad, do a Wikipedia search on Dickie Scruggs.) His frm has filed more than go lawsuits in federal courts against not-for-profit hospitals, alleging that the hospitals routinely overcharge pay patients, hound them with aggressive collection tactics, and il to provide adequate charity care in violation of their tax-exempt stahus.In a number of the lawsuits, the American Hospital Association AHA) is named as a coconspirator and defendant. Needless to say, the AHA has called the lawsuits "baseless" and a diversion of resources that could otherwise be used for community healthcare. The heart fact rt of the lawsuits revolves around two issues. First, the that patients who are least able to pay are generally charged the is common practice to bill self-pay ubtevery other payer is paying less than full charges, often y less. For example, consider the case of Jane Adams, age tot t is common practice to bill selfpay patients a full charges shereas