FIRST GORSUCH OPINION OPENS DOOR TO DEBT COLLECTION ABUSES

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

Justice Neil Gorsuch, the newest addition to the U.S. Supreme Court, recently authored his first opinion and it is one likely to have negative repercussions for large numbers of people who find themselves unable to pay their bills.

Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, decided on June 12, concerns the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA, a federal law that is meant to protect against abusive, unfair, and deceptive practices in the collection of consumer debt– debt incurred primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.

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NEW HEARING IN CHRISTIE CRIMINAL CASE, ECHOES OF BARLYN SUIT

Posted on by Mary Pat Gallagher

The criminal case against Governor Chris Christie over the Bridgegate lane-closing scandal met with a setback on January 12 when a state judge sent it back down to municipal court for a new hearing on probable cause.

Bergen County Assignment Judge Bonnie Mizdol vacated the probable cause determination made last October by Roy McGeady, the county’s Presiding Municipal Judge, on the ground that Christie was denied his constitutional right to counsel.

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Surprise Medical Bills: What they are and how to stop them

Posted on by Myles Zhang

New Jersey’s leading consumer health coalition held a press conference today announcing the release of a new report, Surprise Medical Bills: what they are and how to stop them . The report examines the consequences and costs of these bills on New Jersey health care consumers and details the remedies necessary to fix the problem. and contains more than a dozen testimonials from consumers who have fallen victim to these out-of-network bills.

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New Jersey’s Vanishing Non-Profit Hospitals

Posted on by Renée Steinhagen

Starting this year, New Jersey nonprofit hospitals are set to be sold to out-of-state, for-profit entities at an alarming rate. New Jersey is already home to for-profit hospitals in which profitability seems to rest largely on complicated sale-leasebacks of their land and buildings, patient admissions through the emergency room that allow for excessive charges for “out-of-network” care, and other predatory practices.

These for-profit models appear to be in direct contrast to the goals of health reform, which call for reducing unnecessary treatment, increasing patient satisfaction and ensuring that all Americans have access to primary and preventive care in community settings, while reducing expensive emergency room use.

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