HOSPITALS TO ASSIST WITH MEDICAL BILLS

Those injured in the mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip will undoubtedly be confronted with medical bills, and some area hospitals are stepping up to ease those patients’ financial worries. ¶ On top of various donation drives, University Medical Center, Sunrise Hospital and Dignity Health-st. Rose Dominican will assist shooting victims to pay varying amounts of their hospital costs.

“At Dignity Health-st. Rose, our focus remains on the immediate medical and supportive care needs of the injured as well as their long-term healing process,” said Jennifer Cooper, Dignity Health-st. Rose Dominican spokeswoman. “St. Rose does not intend to bill or require payment from any patient victims of this tragic event.”

To recoup some of the cost, the medical group will look to other avenues to pay for the shooting victims’ care.

“St. Rose will bill third-party payers (if any) and will be accepting contributions from donors in the community to address the financial and other burdens placed on these patient victims,” Cooper said.

UMC officials said they will work to help those who were uninsured so they will not have a financial burden.

“Because we have had an outpouring of support for our patients, we are closely coordinating uninsured expenses with generous donors,” UMC spokeswoman Danita Cohen said.

JOHN LOCHER / AP Diana Litzenberg, who was injured in the Oct. 1 shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, lies in a hospital bed Oct. 5 at the University Medical Center. UMC and two other hospitals have said they would assist victims of the tragedy to pay varying...