Sexual assault victims billed for hospital exams that should be free
Some victims of sexual assault get charged for their emergency care, with bills over $3,500, even though federal law requires their forensic exams to be free.
Some victims of sexual assault are paying out of pocket for their emergency room care, even though federal law requires that their forensic exams be free.
In a letter to the editor published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, a group of doctors and researchers calculated the cost of emergency department visits for survivors of sexual violence, using 2019 data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
They found that out of nearly 113,000 emergency visits that year related to sexual violence, 16% resulted in out-of-pocket costs for the survivors.
In those cases, the average cost of care was $3,551 per person. Costs were higher for pregnant people: $4,553 per person, on average.
The Violence Against Women Act, a federal law enacted in 1994, stipulates that people cannot be charged for a forensic exam after a sexual assault. President Joe Biden, then a senator, introduced the act in 1990. In March, he reauthorized the law.
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