Hospitals are now joining cities and states in suing opioid makers for the financial damages their products have caused.
In Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia, hundreds of hospitals are now suing opioid makers in state courts to seek compensation for the unreimbursed costs they incurred caring for uninsured patients who came to them suffering from overdoses and addiction. For the most part, the most prominent hospitals and health systems in these states have not joined the suits.
According to court documents, the suing hospitals estimate that it cost them an average of $107,000 to treat complicated opioid patients and that in 2012 alone their unreimbursed costs for such care amounted to more than $15 billion.
Learn more about why the hospitals are suing and some of the challenges they may face along the way in the National Public Radio report “Some Hospitals Sue Opioid Makers For Costs Of Treating Uninsured For Addiction.”