Victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting who were treated by two local hospitals after the attack just received some good news. Florida Hospital and Orlando Health have each released statements stating that they will not bill the victims for their treatment, CNN reports.
The bills at Florida Hospital, which treated 12 victims, could end up being more than $525,000. The unreimbursed medical bills for the 44 victims treated by Orlando Health, nine of whom died at the hospital, could add up to more than $5 million. The shooting took the lives of 49 people.
“It was incredible to see how our community came together in the wake of the senseless Pulse shooting,” Florida Hospital president Daryl Tol told CNN in a statement.
The amnesties offered by the two hospitals are slightly different. Florida Hospital will not be billing the victims or their insurance companies. The costs at Orlando Health are significantly more substantial, however, so that hospital will bill the victims’ insurance companies; whatever costs the victims’ policies don’t cover will be disregarded.
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In a statement to Coins2Day, Orlando Health said that it is also considering options for patients who are expected to have continuing medical costs.
“While we can’t assume we will provide free care forever,” the hospital said, “we will use our very generous charity and financial assistance policies to assess the best way to ensure our patients get quality care here at Orlando Health in the most fiscally responsible manner.”
The options being considered include “state and federal funds, private insurance, disability insurance, Florida’s crime victim compensation program, funding sources established for individual victims, means-tested programs like Medicaid, as well as charity care provided by Orlando Health.”
