The 82 patients who were injured by the Nashville, Tennessee tornado on Tuesday, March 3, will not have to pay for their medical bills after receiving treatment from Cookeville Regional Medical Center, according to multiple reports.
Fox 8 reported that this is a particular case and limited to the 82 individuals whose houses were damaged during the tornado.
Steve Ramey, the Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s Chief Financial Officer, said the hospital would send the bill to the patients’ insurance companies, according to the Herald-Citizen. Furthermore, the hospital will be write-off any portion that is not covered by the insurance companies.
“We’re going to bill the insurance and accept the insurance payment as payment in full. None of the patients will get a bill from us,” Ramey said. He added that should any one of the 82 patients receive a bill from the Cookeville Regional Medical Center, then they should inform the hospital’s office, and the bill will be removed, according to the news outlet.
However, this would only affect the treatment that the patients received from the hospital. Any other form of medical treatment received outside of the Cookeville Regional Medical Center will have to be covered by the patients themselves. These fees may include the ambulance ride to the hospital, or any other outside help patients may have received, according to the news outlet.
According to Ramey, all of the 82 patients have been notified, according to the news outlet.
“We’re trying to contact all those hospitals to let them know how we’re handling it. We don’t know what they’ll do, but this is what we’re doing,” Ramey said.
“We’re encouraging all those providers to do something in kind,” Ramey said.
Twenty-four people died as a result of the tornado that hit Tennessee, according to Fox 8, and many individuals are reported missing.
According to the Associated Press, early morning on Tuesday, tornadoes ripped across Tennessee and destroyed at least 40 buildings, with 24 people known to have died so far. Many individuals are missing, as well. One of the tornadoes caused severe damage across downtown Nashville, leaving hundreds of people homeless and destroying the stained glass in a historic church.
In the aftermath of the tornado hitting the area, the landscape is littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees. City streets are in gridlock. Schools, courts, transit lines, an airport, and the state Capitol were closed, and some damaged polling stations had to be moved only hours before Super Tuesday voting began.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
