The Oregon Department of Justice is asking a judge to compel Renton, Wash.-based Providence to turn over more documents into an investigation of the health system's charity care program, The Oregonian reported March 25.
A complaint has not been filed in the case, but the state justice department is investigating whether Providence's policies to reduce free care to low-income patients violated consumer protection and charity care laws, according to the report.
The justice department alleges that Providence, which has eight hospitals in Oregon, has declined to search through and hand over documents being sought by investigators, according to the report.
Providence told Becker's in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation and has provided 100,000 documents, responded to dozens of information requests and made 10 witnesses available for interviews.
"We remain willing to come to a reasonable understanding with the department regarding the scope of further document requests to provide ODOJ with what it needs while alleviating the burden on Providence," the statement said. "However, we see as highly burdensome and unreasonable the drastically overbroad document requests from ODOJ and regret the department felt it necessary to file its motion to compel. We intend to defend our position in court and look forward to reaching a resolution that is satisfactory to all parties."
Providence said in a court filing that it estimates that the justice department's request will require almost 200,000 additional files. The health system is asking the Oregon circuit court judge to deny the department's request.
"A responsiveness and privilege review of this volume of files is likely to take around 3,500 hours of attorney review time and will likely cost approximately $675,000," Providence said in the filing. "This cost is in addition to the more than $2.4 million that Providence has already spent in responding to DOJ's investigation."
Providence in February agreed to provide $157.8 million in refunds and debt relief to low-income patients as part of an agreement with the Washington Office of the Attorney General. Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit against Providence in February 2022, alleging 14 of the system's hospitals in the state engaged in aggressive tactics to collect payment, failed to ensure discounts for eligible low-income patients, and steered poor patients to debt collectors.
The Oregon justice department began investigating Providence in October 2022. Providence said in its Oregon court filing that while the cases in the two states are similar, "the relevant statutory schemes and practices are completely distinct."
"Specifically, the amounts to be refunded to patients or forgiven under the Washington settlement relate to allegations that patients who were required under Washington law to receive presumptive charity did not obtain that benefit," the system said in the filing. "In Oregon, however, there is no allegation that Providence has not complied with the statutory requirements to screen patients prior to referral to collections and to make adjustments based on the results of those screens."
Providence added that it settled the Washington case without admitting any violations.