Funding available through cy pres relief from settlement against Tenet Healthcare Corporation

Boston, MA, July 2, 2007.  Community Catalyst announces funding opportunities in 15 states across the country to improve health care access for the underinsured.  Through the Hospital Accountability Project, Community Catalyst will fund advocate-led coalitions to work on a range of policy and organizing activities to benefit the underinsured in each state.  The request for preliminary proposals was released today.

“Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the nation,” said Renée Markus Hodin, Project Director.  “Our hospitals and system of health care need to be more accountable for working with consumers so that they are not facing financial distress in addition to their health care decisions.”

The project is currently focused on 15 states that were part of a lawsuit against the Tenet Healthcare Corporation, a national for-profit hospital company.  As part of the settlement, the court awarded Community Catalyst funds to provide grants in each state to attack the problems that gave rise to the original litigation.

This project will promote changes in policies and practices of individual hospitals and hospital systems as well as in local and state-level public policy.  These activities are aimed at addressing the issues of medical debt for the underinsured in the states where Tenet hospitals were located:  Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

The Hospital Accountability Project is working with health care advocates to remove barriers to care for the underinsured.  “The ultimate goal has to be a system that leaves no one underinsured,” Hodin added.  “However, as long as we rely on private insurance systems for coverage, there will be serious gaps, often for the most vulnerable.  This Project seeks to reduce the burden on those people who find their coverage falls short when they most need it.”

For details on the Project and to view the Request for Preliminary Proposals, go to http://www.communitycatalyst.org/projects/?id=0009.

About Community Catalyst
Community Catalyst is a national non-profit advocacy organization working to build the consumer and community leadership that is required to transform the American health system.  With the belief that this transformation will happen when consumers are fully engaged and have an organized voice, Community Catalyst has provided leadership and support to state and local consumer organizations, policymakers, and foundations working to change the health care system so it serves everyone – especially vulnerable members of society since 1997.  For more information, visit www.communitycatalyst.org.

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