Tuesday's Number: $652,103

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is likely a patient debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, there were

·         31 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers, totaling $490,576

·         one satisfied judgment, for $12,543 and

·         three bankruptcies, for $174,070.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

·         Crouse had twelve, totaling $102,413

·         St Joe’s had six, totaling $49,147 (including credit for the satisfied judgment)

·         SUNY Upstate added another fourteen, for $319,801, and

·         Community General, a part of Upstate, added one, for $123,631.

This week brought us only the fifth filing of the year for Community General, the other four having come in the first quarter.  A rehab center ($50,810) and a medical group ($6,301) make up the difference between the overall and hospital totals. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.