AMERICAN PATIENT RIGHTS ASSOCIATION
American Patient Rights Association (APRA) is a consumer organization for patients.
Why a Consumer Organization is Needed for Patients
As of December 2023, one-in-three adults in the United States has medical debt. That’s an estimated 100 million people*. It’s the leading cause of bankruptcy. Seventy-two percent (72%) of people bankrupted by medical bills have health insurance**. Also, preventable medical errors are estimated to kill 250,000 to 440,000 hospital patients each year and injure millions more.
Most people are unaware of the dangers of our out-of-control, profit-driven medical system that rewards hospitals, medical clinics, and urgent care facilities for medical treatment that is frequently unnecessary and often dangerous, health insurers for denying needed treatment, and pharmaceutical manufacturers who put unreasonable profit before patients’ lives. As a result, every year hundreds of thousands of people die or suffer permanent physical harm, and millions suffer financial harm.
All Americans should have the right to receive medical treatment, but it is mainly a privilege that is only available to those who can afford it. All patients should be treated equally and fairly, but they are not. Health equality and equity are serious issues affecting Blacks, Latinos, the elderly, the impoverished, the disabled, and others. Everyone who receives medical care should be treated safely, but instead, each patient must protect himself or herself from unsafe treatment. Patients need transparency when seeking hospital treatment, but there is none.
Corporate healthcare systems that prioritize profits over patients are growing larger and larger each year, buying up private practices and stifling competition, leaving fewer and fewer private doctors who put patients first. The medical-industrial complex successfully opposes any legislation that supports fair or safe medical treatment but could threaten corporate profits.
* White House State Convening on Medical Debt December 2023. **Study by Harvard University. Learn more.
OUR MISSION
To provide the leadership, education, and advocacy for the right of healthcare consumers to receive fair, safe, transparent medical treatment.
OUR VISION
Medical care for all that is free of preventable harm. All patients should have a right to transparency, clarity, full disclosure, honesty, and truthfulness in all medical matters, which are too often missing from patient communications.
APRA Membership Benefits
APRA members receive:
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- information to help them avoid financial hardship by fighting predatory medical billing practices and insurance denials, the leading cause of bankruptcy;
- information to help them protect themselves and their families from preventable harm from medical treatment and medical errors;
- information to help them protect themselves from being harmed by medical, pharmaceutical, and insurance organizations that put profit before patients
- full access to our website, providing important information that is not commonly known by or widely available to patients, including: news and alerts about medical facilities, treatments, medications, devices, insurance, and more that threaten the safety or financial well-being of healthcare consumers, and tools that members can use to help them protect themselves from physical and financial harm when receiving medical treatment, and
- APRA empowers our members by providing a voice for patients.
FACT:
- medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy;
- preventable medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death;
- medical errors happen at all hospitals every day;
- approximately one in four seniors who are hospitalized will be harmed by an injury or illness that is unrelated to the illness or injury they are being treated for;
- most of the active ingredients and raw materials that go into our generic prescription drugs come from Chinese sources that are not overseen by the FDA, which places all Americans at risk due to a lack of drug safety monitoring and the potential for our drug supply to be cut off at will by China. Until we develop pharmaceutical manufacturing that is independent of the Chinese, we can be held hostage at any time.
APRA is:
- developing solutions to fight unreasonable and predatory medical bills and make health care safer for all
- fighting for the fair, safe, transparent, and affordable healthcare we all deserve
- independent, non-partisan, and not associated with nor influenced by any medical, health insurance, pharmaceutical organization or association, or government department.
OUR MOTTOS
Save Our Patients™ | Patients Before Profits ™ | Patient Power ™ | Treat Patients Safely ™U
Membership in APRA is free and open to all. Register now to receive membership benefits.
We Depend on Gifts From People Like You
Today, public support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to develop programs that save lives, and lets us keep our membership free. If you value what we do, please give a gift today so we can keep on doing work that matters. depend on donations to develop and support programs and apps that can help people protect themselves and their families when medical care is needed, like the Patient’s Hospital Safety Guide, the Hospital Guide for COVID Patients, the Patient Safety Reporting System, and more.