Catholic Health Initiatives-Iowa, a faith-based health care provider, is arguing in a medical malpractice case that the loss of an unborn child does not equate to the death of a “person” for the purpose of calculating damage awards.
In Iowa, court-ordered awards for noneconomic losses stemming from medical malpractice are capped at $250,000, except in cases that entail the “loss or impairment of mind or body.”
Attorneys for the CHI and MercyOne hospital are arguing the cap on damages still applies in cases where the “loss” is that of a fetus or unborn child.
CHI’s status as a nonprofit, tax-exempt entity is based on its stated mission of providing health services “in the spirit of the gospel.” The ethics guidelines it approved in 2018 state that the corporation is committed to “respect the sacredness of every human life from the moment of conception until death.”
CHI is an absolute nightmare to deal with. They will send you to collections almost immediately, they can’t answer any questions about your bills, and seem to routinely fuck them up so bad I’ve had lawyers send them letters twice to get problems resolved.
Getting the same service from the university medical system in my area suddenly fixed all of the billing issues. Where I was paying out the ass after insurance, suddenly the patient responsibility dropped to damn near 0.
The ‘Catholic’ part is just a veneer. It’s a for profit medical institution that’s uses religious conviction as another avenue for profit.