Patients Rising

06/17/2026

For a patient waiting on treatment, prior authorization is rarely just paperwork. It’s the days or weeks between a doctor’s decision and the care that decision was supposed to deliver—time a serious illness doesn’t always give back.

That’s why we submitted a public comment on the 2026 CMS Interoperability Standards and Prior Authorization for Drugs Proposed Rule (CMS-0062-P) —the federal government’s most significant attempt yet to fix how prior authorization works for medications.

Take a look at what we had to say right here:

In its 2026 comment to CMS, Patients Rising urged faster prior authorization decisions, plain-language denials, and an end to timing-based lab-test denials.

06/14/2026

The Lowering Costs for Caregivers Act — http://H.R. 138 Led by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) with Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), and co-sponsored by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), would let family caregivers use tax-free HSA and FSA dollars toward the qualified medical expenses of a parent or parent-in-law — creating meaningful financial relief for the millions of Americans caring for an aging loved one.

We invite you to join Patients Rising on Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET for our online workshop, Alzheimer's & Caregiving: What's Moving in Congress to discuss this piece of legislation and ask questions. Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q04k-_w00

06/12/2026

On Tuesday, Patients Rising is hosting a webinar where we'll be discussing 2 bipartisan bills that are important to the Alzheimer's and caregiving community.

One of them, the Alzheimer's Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act, is designed to expand Medicare coverage for blood-based early detection tests so that patients and families will get answers sooner.

We invite you to join us at 2 p.m. ET June 16 for Alzheimer's & Caregiving: What's Moving in Congress. Come ready with all your questions, and register here to be part of the conversation: https://hubs.ly/Q04l0kbt0

06/11/2026

An earlier diagnosis. A little financial breathing room.

For Alzheimer's patients and the families who care for them, both are within reach — if Congress acts.

On June 16, Patients Rising sits down with staff from the congressional offices leading two bipartisan bills built for patients and caregivers: the Alzheimer's Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act and the Lowering Costs for Caregivers Act. We'll walk through what each bill does, where it stands, and what it would mean for the people living these diagnoses every day.

Have your questions ready, and register here: https://hubs.ly/Q04k_h940

06/10/2026

The patients on the bankruptcy schedules in our investigation series may have been 340B patients at their treating hospitals. They were never told. They were never told what the hospital's charity-care policy was. They were never told they might have qualified. The bill came. Then the collections letters. Then the bankruptcy.

The hospital will write the balance off when the bankruptcy discharge enters.

The hospital may count the write-off toward "community benefit."

The patient gets seven to ten years of credit damage and the federal court record of having filed.

This is the program as it currently operates.

06/09/2026

Patients Rising reviewed 187 bankruptcy filings across Colorado and uncovered a troubling connection between medical debt and hospitals participating in the federal 340B drug discount program. More than half of the filings included debt owed to a 340B hospital system, accounting for nearly $http://1.5 million in verified balances. The cases revealed a recurring pattern of patients carrying overwhelming debt from a single hospital system, fragmented billing that turned one medical event into multiple financial obligations and rural families facing additional costs tied to long-distance care and emergency transport.

As hospitals receive federal discounts intended to strengthen care for vulnerable patients, the Colorado findings raise important questions about affordability, transparency and whether those resources are translating into meaningful financial relief for the people the program was designed to serve.

Read more about our investigation into Colorado here:

Patients Rising reviewed 187 Colorado bankruptcy filings: 86% involved medical debt and more than half were tied to federal 340B hospitals.

06/08/2026

The American Hospital Association's September 2025 community benefit report, the source of the often-cited "$100 billion" figure, is based on IRS Form 990 Schedule H data submitted by 340B hospitals themselves.

Hospitals report the data. The AHA collects it. The AHA, which represents and advocates for hospitals, then publishes a report highlighting the community benefits those hospitals say they provide.

What is often overlooked is that the underlying numbers are not independently verified. There is no federal auditor reviewing how each hospital categorized its spending, and there is no consistent enforcement mechanism to ensure expenses are classified the same way from one hospital to the next. Hospitals report the information, and the AHA reports what hospitals reported.

There is also no single federal definition of "community benefit" that requires uniform reporting. Two hospitals serving similar patients can, and often do, categorize similar expenses differently. The IRS provides guidance on what hospitals may report, but it does not require every hospital to classify expenses the same way.

As a result, the AHA's $100 billion figure is an aggregate of self-reported data that may be categorized differently from hospital to hospital. The number reflects what hospitals reported, not a standardized accounting of community benefit spending.

06/07/2026

Patients Rising reviewed 130 bankruptcy filings across Louisiana and found a pattern that is difficult to ignore. More than one-third of the cases involved medical debt owed to nonprofit hospitals participating in the federal 340B drug discount program, with nearly $1 million in verified debt identified. Two major health systems alone accounted for 84% of the total, and among the filings was a family surviving on just $1,800 per month while carrying more than $386,000 in hospital debt, the largest single hospital balance uncovered in Patients Rising's six-state investigation.

Read more about our investigation here:

A $386,758 hospital balance on a single Plain Dealing schedule. A review of 130 Louisiana bankruptcy filings and $954,000 in debt to 340B hospitals.

06/05/2026

Illinois 340B hospitals now generate roughly 2.7 times more in program profits than they spend on charity care. Statewide, these hospitals provide charity care equal to just 1.74% of their costs — below the national average — and nearly 69% provide less charity care than comparable non-340B hospitals. One Illinois hospital alone, the University of Chicago Medical Center, is estimated to generate more than $200 million annually through the program.

Where is that money going?

Kathy Missel is asking the questions that patients deserve to have the answers to. In case you missed it earlier this week, take a look at her guest column for Patients Rising: https://hubs.ly/Q04jpnWH0

06/04/2026

Wisconsin presents the most concentrated medical-bankruptcy pattern in our six-state series. Across 104 individual Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings from the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin in January and February 2024 — just two months — the data shows the highest 340B exposure rate, the highest medical-debt rate, the densest verified-340B dollar accumulation per unit of time, and the most concentrated single-system dominance of any state we have examined.

Read our report here:

Aurora Health Care appears on 48 of 104 Wisconsin bankruptcy filings. A two-month review of $1.16M in 340B hospital debt and what it reveals.