i have seen the packed courtroom filled with folks being prosecuted by this bogus company. good for these people for daring to defy the heartland long arm. it is fine to collect debt, but it is morally reprehensible to use your monolithic status in this city to outright lie about the process.

i hope this can be moved into the realm of a class action suit. the sooner, the better. bring on the big city KC attorney firms, since no one in joetown can stand against heartland.

this should be on the front page. i get the electronic version only. is it buried, or out front and center , where it belongs?

Heritage...Good for you for stepping forward in support of the Smiths and Mr. Dillon!

This type of practice and other similar practices should be investigated further. The legal monies spent by Heartland to defend their position should have gone for true and caring healthcare for folks who want to pay but do not have the funds available.

In the spirit of being an American, I support your position whole-heartedly!

let me make it clear that i believe that the caregivers at heartland are all good people. i just don't care for their corporate policies. sadly, many of those on the receiving end of the bogus NW financial are not able to understand that they can Fight, and the most vulnerable simply go down for the count. i do applaud the judge who hears these cases. he requires the lawyers for NWF to go through the files on a case by case basis. i have heard the judge apologize to those who are waiting for the often foot high stacks of cases to be heard, because he does so in the interest of justice.

( i only have to go to this court for the landlord tenant hearings, which follow these actions)

This story raises as many questions as it answers. It might be worthwhile for someone to ask Mr. Kruse these questions:
If this is a for-profit venture, where do the profits go?
Who are the shareholders in this for-profit venture? Do they include any Heartland execs or past or present board members?

Falcon...you raise a good question regarding "For-Profit" being owned by a "Not-for-Profit" organization.

Good for YOU!

Excellent question - if the not-for-profit owns the for-profit and it makes a profit, where does the profit go and is it taxed?

falcon...... that is a great question. dang.......

What is so astounding about this is that you try to pay heartland for the heartland bill and they will only take a certain amount based on your income which most of the time people only make enough money to pay the bills just to have food, shelter, water and clothing, if you don't pay enough they turn you over to collections and then they add on the interest because now it is turned over to a bill collector (Northwest Financial) and they can do that? Charging more for the services that they won't take your payment for because it isn't enough for them to satisfy the debt, please!!! Heartland knows what they are going and they are definitely turning a profit in that place!!!

Let me get this right ... you all are siding with people who don't want to pay their bills. You do realize people like this make health care more expensive for all of us. Today, I think I'll sue the utility company, the cable company and my mortgage company because I don't want to pay those bills.

sun23...whether or not they can or cannot pay their bills is not the point of this article or lawsuit. On the flip side, one could say...you want to side with business who are in violation and are deceiving customers?

I too would like to know where these profits went, whose pockets it lined.

I have always paid my bills promptly in all areas, but these people are downright nasty...even when you ARE paying your bills.

Heartland is not-for-profit? Really?? Hmmm...
But their collections 'department' is for-profit.
Wouldn't that make BOTH of the FOR-profit.

NW Financial calls my husband and harasses him because he has the same name as someone they're collecting on a couple days before Christmas... insisting these bills are his. I'm sure we'd know if my husband had a certain surgery resulting in well over $10,000 of medical bills!

Sheesh!

Actually a non-profit corporation can have a profit subsidiary and it does pay taxes. Actually sometimes a non-profit pays taxes on unrelated business income.

udontknowme....

me and my husband had the same problem. nothing is ever good enough for them. at the time we wasnt married but living together and they forced to get my income to figure out the payments. (my name was no where on any of the papers) so of course the payments was outrages. i finally went to my bank and got a small loan out to pay it so i didnt have to get 10 million calls a day with alot better interest rate and payment!

This lawsuit is way overdue and frankly I am surprised there is any coverage of the settlement in the newspaper.
The Northwest Financial collectors dont use real names, they are nasty and they get a % of what they collect. It all goes together . In any other community they would have been exposed ages ago , but here in this town the people who run the town run together. Heartland can spend money trying to improve their image but their image is Northwest Financial and until they understand that , people will think the whole system is nasty and mean. They dont get that at the upper levels of Heartland.

In my opinion heartlands caregivers are good for the most part but their accounting and collections people are terrible. if you go have something done you get a bill from the hospital and then the doctor and then the x ray folks and then and then and then. by the time you get all the bills figured out they are calling you about being late on the payment. before you know it you are getting collections calls from the for profit side of a not for profit monopoly group. but I wonder if heartland did nothing wrong why are they sealing the court records?? unless there is something to hide maybe?? health care is high partly because of non paying patients but also due to fraudulent health care providers too. so does anybody know who to call for the legal suit when this happens to you??

One big problem is that medicare/medicaid which pays for the vast majority of the ar at Heartland has strict rules about how people (including not paid for by them) are charged. Heartland gets audit regularly and one of the easiest ways to stay clean is to try to collect all accounts. On the other hand, Heartland is a non-profit and is required to provide a certain level (not defined) of free care. So they have a balancing act. Also, they do collect money so there is money to be collected. People are just chosing not to pay them.

I don't always agree with their tactics, I find their bills confusing at times. These guys utterly failed in their lawsuit, Potts wanted something like $100,000 in legal fees for doing nothing. He tried to ride the coattails of a similar lawsuit from Springfield that lost.

Orilander said it best when he said nasty. My wife and I have both had major surgery at St. Lukes, same insurance coverage, never any nasty collection letters.

Many times it has nothing to do with someone not WANTING to pay their bills. Many people WANT to pay, and believe it's their responsibility to pay, but Heartland and NWF make it almost impossible. I've been around this bend myself...owing Heartland a lot of money that the insurance refused to pay. Heartland refused to accept a reasonable monthly payment ($100 per month for a $1200 bill), and turned the acount over to NWF. Those "pitbulls" resorted to threatening to take our car, put a garnishment order against my paycheck, and even threatened to contact my employeer, which, in my case, would result in my termination. They knew that, and used it against me. We agreed to a payment schedule, and started paying the monthly payment. I attempted to get the agreement in writing, but they refused, and insisted it was all in their computer system. Part-way through the process, we were contacted by NWF, and told that our arrangement was no longer acceptable, and basically doubled my monthly payment! I insisted we already had a deal. They have no record of it!! We finally agreed on a new arrangement, but when I asked to get THAT in writing, they refused, again, telling me they don't HAVE to put it in writing. They claimed there is nothing in the law that requires it!
I've contacted the State Attorney General's office, and have been told that 3rd part collectors are basically unregulated, and they can do anything they please, short of physical harm!! Trust me, they'll stop at nothing, short of causing physical harm to me or my family. The Attorney General's office told me they COULD, in fact, confiscate our car(s), and other similar items. They can call anyone, including my employer, and share all details of my account with them.
Oh...and the BEST part is, they insist the payments be made with post-dated checks. The first go-around, they attempted to submit all the checks for payment at once! The bank refused, which I suspect caused them to back away from their deal.
Thankfully, I'm almost through paying them off. I've been TEMPTED to make the last payment in person....all in pennies!!
If anyone from NWF reads this....in my opinion, you're one of the lowest forms of life crawling the face of the earth! My only hope is that someday, you, too have difficulty paying huge medical bills, and end up on the wrong side of an agency such as yours....

They call our house all the time. NOT for a bill WE owe but one of my grown children that owes them. They call us because when she was a minor we were her guarantor. I have explained to them she has not lived with us for several years and at 26 has not been on our insurance since she was 18. I forward their messages on to her, but they keep on calling after I have asked them to stop.

I have a question, are all collection agencies like this?

What if you don't make a car payment on time, what happens? A house payment? Is health care different?

I honestly don't know, just opening this up for discussion.

Yet another piece of the Heartland puzzle solved with no surprises.

Once upon a time way back in the 1980's when Midwestern Health Management came about there were I believe 23 companies under them and they use to tell the staff at Northwest not to tell anyone that Heartland owned them. Well Midwestern Health Management is or is part of the "For Profit" arm of Heartland and not only do the staff at Northwest draw their hourly wage they also get a bonus check based on the amount of profit they make each month from their collection efforts. That money is pumped back into Heartland into other departments like Community Health Plan and for equipment etc that the overbearing hosptial owns. The suit is way and I mean WAY overdue they were in need of a serious wake up call/reality check and could use a few more and they do not use their real names they have their "collector name". Now that a presidence has been set let the games begin and I hope others file suit it is about time that "Uncle Lowell's Patient Palace" got knocked down a notch or two or three.

We just go to NKC Hospital now. Better experience in every way.

This would appear to directly conflict with one of Heartland’s guiding principles, “do the right”. This is a direct quote from www.cerner.com/public/filedownload.asp?LibraryID=47345.

I would purpose that a similar investigation occur with the LACIE (Lewis and Clark Information Exchange) group as well. Reportedly, this is a standalone company that is working in coordination with the Cerner Corporation to create a regional health information exchange network. Ironically, they occupy Heartland business space and their job postings are only offered to internal candidates. It seems like just another case of Heartland’s “dirty” business practices.

Lets face it folks, Heartland Health and Northwest Financial own this town, and is not a single person here that can go against them. They have the courts behind them, and no matter how you try, you will get nowhere

makes me wonder why a place that is supposed to help preserve life, can not give a care about the lives they claim to help

God help me, if i were to get sick, i would die before being cared for by heartland health, for they would send northwest financial to heaven to collect from me

The entire billing practices of Heartland needs to be investigated. It is not uncommon for them to "discover" items they "forgot" to bill a patient two or three years after the services were rendered. At that point, there is little hope of recovering the money from insurance and the patient is on the hook for money they shouldn't owe. I am quite sure much of it is fraudulent. Maybe the state Attorney General or the feds might want to give that outfit a thorough audit. Heartland has built themselves a little dynasty on the backs of the working population of the area.

john gait, i had that happen to me and it was for unbillable charges even. At the time of my service, there was no applicable copay (CHP-another HH owned business). At some point in the two years following, they decided to charge copay for a particular service, still not noting the change in the policy handbook. Then, almost 2 1/2 years later after the service they try and "bill" me for it through their collection agency (first attempt or bill came from their pitbulls). they claimed they updated software and located old charges that were never billed. Because I filed a complaint with the state and the fact they could not produce a policy change that indicated the copay was required, and many many hours on my part, they had to write it off. But wait it gets better. They were to write off all three copays, but only two got done. About a year after that, I got another bill from the one that got through the cracks. Luckily they had access to the info on the other identical charges and took care of it. I think I ought to bill them for taking my time and calls that I had to make. Talk about a mickey mouse rink.

5/21/09, I was just told that Heartland is now using a Texas based collection agency, I didn't get the name of it. Anyone else heard anything about this?

God Bless America, God Save The Republic.

insideout - LACIE hmmmmm? Wonder of the ones calling the shots about using cerner to outsource IT are somehow reaping benefits from this for profit group. Very interesting.

A few years ago I was taking care of my 80 year old grandmother and got into it with heartland and nwf over a bill, she had 2 ins companys and between the 2 she never had to pay any out of pocket expenses for healthcare. So I get this phone call from nwf telling me she owes $29.00 on a stay at heartland and it was almost a year since that had happen, I told them the 2 ins compnay cover all her medical bill and there must be a error in the billing. Oh no they said shes just a not good dead beat and needs to pay up or else. Well after a week of phone calls I got a printout of that vist and I then called blue cross and the looked in to it and called me back in a couple of days and said shes does not owe anything. They had paid that amount and had the transfer info to prove it. And then thats when I found out that wonderful heartland at the time was one of the top 100 worst hospitals when it come to billing errors in the country. So now blue cross gets involed in this and they show proff of the payment and then it's "O we are sorry we credited the wrong account, we bad", it took me 6 months to get the negative info of my 80 year old grandmothers credit because of there screw up and it got down to finger pointing on whos fault, heartland said nwf and nwf said heartland. So money talks and bs walks in this town when it comes to heartless and nwf. There one in the same, just smoke and mirrors.

If you think about it, this thread makes a pretty good argument for a single-payer system.

we have all had problems with north west finacial not with heartland if we can get enough claims missouri attourney general will take the case

This is why we need national health care period. Those that have the income to pay will pay, and those that do not will receive the same care. Look at all the bad PR Heartland generated on itself attempting to collect a few dollars to thousand of dollars. Another problem is the entire insurance industry. I sold insurance for two years, and I can not recommend insurance to anyone. If you get someone else to provide it for you fine, but I wouldn't put my own money into any insurance policy. The insurance industry wants your premiums, but spend a lot of time attempting to reduce their payments for policy claims. Again we need National Health Care which is pro rated based on income.