Tuesday's Number: ($38,888)

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

I have a sneaky feeling this series will be winding down soon, based on what was in the paper today - or maybe, based on what wasn't in the paper.  I'll have to wait until next week to see if there's a trend or if this week is just an outlier -- so stay tuned.

There was one new judgment this week, for $10,815; there were four satisfied judgments, totaling $132,965, and there was one bankruptcy, for $83,262. 

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had three filings, including a repayment, for a net of $87,609
• St. Joe’s added a repayment, for a net credit of $23,199
• SUNY Upstate had one - a repayment  - for a net credit of $6,807

The largest filing - a repayment of $96,491 - was credited to a local nursing facility.

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number Quarterly Recap

Lordy, what an ugly quarter this was. Even with a missing week, it's the worst we've seen since the end of 2014.

And the bad was spread around, too - it wasn't just one category that was out of line, it was just plain ugly pretty much across the board.

Here are the numbers:

• 307 judgments, totaling $5,987,344
• 19 satisfied judgments, totaling $133,467
• 4 bankruptcies, for a total of $111,423

Some comparisons:

• Q2's 12-week net of $5,965,300, was up $1,675,912 over the 13-week net for last quarter, a 28% increase. 
• On a per-hospital basis, Crouse and St Joe's were both down (57% and 31% respectively), but SUNY more than made up for that; the Q2 total was more than $2.1M higher than Q1
• The total number of filings - 330 - was the highest it's been since the end of 2014, and the fifth highest since I started tracking this way in 2013.
• We had seven weeks out of twelve where there were no satisfied judgments; the previous high was Q1 of 2015 (six out of thirteen)

Finally, comparing the first half of this year to all of last year:

• number of filings: we already have 65% of last year's total
• judgments: we have already accounted for 62% of last year's total
• satisfied judgments: we're at 38.8% of last year's total
• bankruptcies: we're at 24.9% of last year's total

Let's hope that we start off the third quarter in better shape. 

Tuesday's Number: $224,523

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

There were 20 new judgments this week, totaling $260,810; there were five satisfied judgments, the first in four weeks, totaling $36,287. And again, there were no satisfied judgments; it’s been ten weeks since we had an obvious health-care related bankruptcy.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had one, for $7,040
• St. Joe’s picked up five, for $75,082
• SUNY Upstate had 14, including all of the repayments, for a net of $142,401

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $308,641

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

There were 20 new judgments this week, totaling $308,641. For the third week in a row, there were no satisfied judgments; it’s been nine weeks since we had an obvious health-care related bankruptcy.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had one, for $20,310
• SUNY Upstate had 16, totaling $269,392
• Community General, SUNY’s other campus, had one, for $6,849

 A local rehab facility had the final $12,090 judgment.  St. Joe’s had no filings reported.

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $280,559

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

There were 16 new judgments this week, totaling $280,559. No satisfied judgments or bankruptcies were listed. Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• St Joe’s had one, for 32,384
• SUNY Upstate had the other 15, totaling $248,175

Crouse and Community, SUNY’s other campus, did not have any filings reported.

A few days ago, SUNY Upstate announced a profit of $120M for 2015, well above the $17M earned in 2014. Better than half of the profit resulted from selling its share of a local lab service and what’s described as a “one-time increased government payment for serving large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients.”  For for 2014, 2015 and year to date in 2016, total reported judgments and bankruptcies (net of repayments that have been tracked) for SUNY is $26,535,736. 

The paper only report filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $639,040

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

There were 28 new judgments this week, totaling $639,040. No satisfied judgments or bankruptcies were listed.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had three again this week, for $23,854
• SUNY Upstate had the other 25, totaling $615,186

 St Joe’s and Community, SUNY’s other campus, did not have any filings reported.

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $487,869

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week’s total pushed this quarter above the first quarter – and we still have six weeks to go. Not a good sign, at all.  

There were 23 new judgments, totaling $515,818. On the plus side, we had four satisfied judgments, for $27,949. No bankruptcies were filed.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had three, including one of the repayments, for a total of$11,266
• SUNY Upstate had 23, which includes the other three repayments, for a net of $476,603

The other two area hospitals, St. Joe's and Community, SUNY's other campus, did not have any filings. 

The paper only includes filings of $5,000 or higher.

Tuesday's Number: $1,073,295

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, the worst in terms of dollar impact since week 48 last year, there were 51 new judgments, totaling $1,078,937, and one satisfied judgment, for a comparatively teensy weensy $5,642. No bankruptcies were filed.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had ten, including the repayment, for a net of $91,070
• St Joe’s had one, $6,032
• SUNY Upstate had 36, totaling $724,512

Community, SUNY’s other campus, did not have any filings reported. Three local rehab centers and an adult care facility contributed another five filings for the remaining $251,678.

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $405,815

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were 30 new judgments, totaling $496,762 and four satisfied judgments, totaling $45,947. No bankruptcies were listed.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had five, including a $5,050 repayment, for a total of $105,560
• St Joe’s had two repayments, for a net credit of $27,501
• SUNY Upstate had 25, including a $13,376 repayment, with a total of $338,923

Community, SUNY’s other campus, did not have any filings reported; a local rehab facility and a regional hospital south of Syracuse together added another $33,833.

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $604,093

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were 34 new judgments, totaling $604,093. And for the second week in a row, there were no satisfied judgments or bankruptcies noted.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
Crouse had three, for a total of $21,121
St Joe’s had two, for $36,413
SUNY Upstate had 29, for $546,559

Community, SUNY’s other campus, did not have any filings reported.

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $724,410

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were 39 new judgments, totaling $724,410. No satisfied judgments or bankruptcies were reported.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital: 

• Crouse had five, for a total of $45,562 
• St Joe’s had one, for $6,431 
• SUNY Upstate had 32, adding $667,249

A local hematology-oncology practice had one filing, making up the $5,168 balance.
The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number :Q1 2016 Recap

This morning's $600K Tuesday's Number was the last of the quarter, which brings us to the recap. 

Have you been paying attention as we ran up the totals over the past thirteen weeks?  How do you think we did? 

Well, let's take a look at the numbers: There were 241 judgments, for $4,208,313; eleven satisfied judgments, for a credit of $155,242, and another eleven bankruptcies for $236,317. The grand total? 263 filings, for a net total of $4,289,388. 

Here's how the numbers compare to prior first quarters:

• This is the lowest opening quarter we've had for total dollars; the previous low was in 2014, at $5,163,376. The highest was in 2013, with $6,992,112. 
• The number of filings is up one over Q1 2015, up 10 over Q1 2014, and down 48 from Q1 2013. 
• Only one of the four local hospitals - Crouse - had an increase in net filings, but the increase was only $2,705 over last year's Q1 number.  
• The net of all filings for St Joe's was the lowest ever, not just the lowest first quarter number.  
• The amount of satisfied judgments continues to lag behind the amount of bankruptcies, but the ratio was better than it has been in a couple of years. Repayments were 59% of the 'never payments', compared to only 35% last year and 39% in 2014. 
• The total for this quarter is up a mere $20,571 over Q4 2015.

While I continue to be disappointed in the low repayments and relatively high bankruptcies, in the overall scheme of things, we didn't fare too badly. Let's hope for continued improvement going forward. 

Tuesday's Number: $501,927

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were 24 new judgments, totaling $483,377, and one bankruptcy, for $18,850. There were no satisfied judgments listed.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
Crouse had eleven, for $144,343
St Joe’s had one, for $7,603
SUNY Upstate had thirteen, adding $349,981

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $412,006

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were 25 new judgments, totaling $424,836, two satisfied judgments for $32,830, and one bankruptcy, for $20,000.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
>Crouse had five, for $71,633
>St Joe’s had three, including the two repayments, for credit of $22,781
>SUNY Upstate added another twenty, for $363,154

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $113,668

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were three new judgments, totaling $22,668, and two bankruptcies, for $91,000. No satisfied judgments were reported.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had two, for $14,731
• St Joe’s had two, for $92,937
• SUNY Upstate added one more, for $6,000

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $143,881

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were eleven new judgments, totaling $119,886, and one bankruptcy, for $23,995. No satisfied judgments were reported.

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
Crouse had four, for $28,925
SUNY Upstate had six, totaling $84,441

The remaining $30,515 was split between a regional hospital to the east of Syracuse, and the NYU Hospitals Center, which picked up this week’s the bankruptcy. 

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $565,058

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. Included in the numbers are those filings that likely represent 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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  

As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were

• 21 new judgments, totaling $587,191
• three satisfied judgments, totaling $30,997 and
• one bankruptcy, for $8,864

Here's the breakdown for the Syracuse hospitals:

• Crouse had eight, including two of the repayments, for a net of $42,309
• St Joe's picked up the third repayment, leaving them with a $19,468 credit
• SUNY had sixteen filings, for a total of $542,222

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $141,561

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year. 

This week, there were

• nine new judgments, totaling $144,060
• two satisfied judgments, for $16,409 and
• Two bankruptcies, totaling $13,991

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had nine, with a net of $120,037
• St. Joe's had one, with a net credit of$6,420
• SUNY Upstate had two, totaling $15,427
• Community General, a part of SUNY, had one, for $12,517

This was the first filing for Community in fourteen weeks, and only their seventh filing since 2014. 

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $131,474

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total.  Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.  

This week, there were

• eleven new judgments, totaling $20,289; 
• one satisfied judgment, for $41,969; 
• and two bankruptcies, totaling $53,154.

By hospital:

• Crouse had nine, for $94,667;
• St Joe's had two, for $19,411; and
• SUNY Upstate had two,including the $41K repayment, for a net credit of $20,768

A local radiology group and a North Country medical center accounted for the remaining $38,074. 

The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.

Tuesday's Number: $355,713

Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.

This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital.  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.

In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.  As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total.  Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.  

This week, there were:

• 33 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers, for $355,713
• no satisfied judgments and
• no bankruptcies 

Here’s the breakdown by hospital:

• Crouse had four, totaling $29,699
• SUNY Upstate had 17, totaling $296,350

A local rehab center ($21,977) and a physician practice ($7,687) account for the balance.

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