The University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City will have to absorb a $55,000 bill for treatment of an Idaho man, the Idaho Court of Appeals has ruled.
The court on Thursday unanimously upheld a district court finding that Elmore County properly notified the hospital within a 60-day time limit that Steven Cassell did not qualify for medical indigency.The hospital argued it never received the notice, and if written notice is not received within 60 days that a claim for indigency is denied, it is considered approved.
Fourth District Judge Robert Rowett ruled the county showed by a preponderance of the evidence that it mailed the notice, and a note in the patient's file indicated it had been received and forwarded to the hospital's attorney.
Cassell was admitted to the hospital in 1983 with serious burns, running up a $55,000 bill before he was discharged three months later.