200 individuals who were treated for malignancy at a Pine Bluff, Arkansas, center opened an occasion card to discover they had their doctor’s visit expenses excused, about $650,000 altogether.
Dr. Omar Atiq, the oncologist who established the malignancy place in 1991 and shut it in mid 2020, said he chose to clear the obligation in the wake of watching his patients battle to make installments similarly as the Covid emergency unfurled.
“You see patients who are simply not ready to pay. So there are debilitated individuals, particularly with disease, and afterward in the COVID pandemic where individuals have lost positions… who are doing a wide range of stuff just to endure,” Atiq, 60, told TODAY.
“For them to have this extra weight, it happened to us that we were honored to have the option to do this.”
He made the declaration in occasion cards sent to his patients in December.
“The Arkansas Cancer Clinic was glad to have you as a patient. Albeit different medical coverages take care of the greater part of the tabs for lion’s share of patients, even the deductibles and co-pays can be oppressive,” the card read.
“The center has chosen to forego all adjusts owed to the facility by its patients. Merry Christmas!”
Atiq shut the malignancy place after very nearly 30 years when he started to invest more energy rehearsing in Little Rock, Arkansas, while another oncologist treated patients at his facility in Pine Bluff. At the point when that specialist surprisingly left, the choice was made to close the training.
“Beginning from the very first moment, our arrangement was never to reject a patient to be seen whether they had protection,” so a lot of cash was owed to the facility, which gave oncology administrations, for example, radiation and chemotherapy, Atiq said. “The chemotherapy drugs are unpleasantly costly, it’s practically unfathomable.”
He attempted to gather the obligation from the start, yet saw individuals were making installments of just $5 or $10 despite the fact that most owed hundreds or thousands of dollars. He understood they simply didn’t have the assets to settle their bills. Subsequent to talking it over with his family in the fall, Atiq chose to pardon the obligation, taking note of it was cash he didn’t require.
Atiq worked with RMC of America, an obligation assortment organization in White Hall, Arkansas, to clear the bills. Bea Cheesman, leader of the organization, called it “an exceptionally nice thought” from “an uncommon doctor,” and at $650,000, remarkable for the firm.
