Washington Company to Refund $410K for Withheld Hospital Charity Care
Puget Sound Physicians, a company providing medical care at Overlake Medical Center's emergency room in Bellevue, Washington, has agreed to refund over $400,000 to low-income patients. This agreement follows an investigation by Washington's Attorney General, Nick Brown. Between 2020 and 2026, the company failed to refund approximately $347,000 to more than 1,400 patients at Overlake who qualified for charity care under state law. Washington state law mandates that hospitals assist low-income patients with out-of-pocket medical costs, regardless of insurance status. Puget Sound Physicians, which directly bills patients for emergency department services, attributed the failure to unintentional accounting errors. While the company maintains this was not a violation of the state's Consumer Protection Act, the Attorney General's office considered it an illegal unfair or deceptive trade practice. The settlement requires Puget Sound Physicians to issue refunds with interest to 1,382 identified patients within 120...
