Former Grady Dialysis Patients Claim they were Pressured to Sign Form ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Former patients of Grady's now-closed dialysis center say they feel duped by an offer that hospital officials made to them last week. Since closing its own center in early October, the hospital has been paying for 3 months of treatment at private clinics for roughly 50 patients.

WABE's Odette Yousef reports.

The affected patients are uninsured, and many are undocumented immigrants who can't afford lifesaving dialysis treatments on their own. Their current care at Fresenius private clinics ends January 3rd.

Several patients say that a Grady social worker approached them in the clinics on Thursday, with a form to sign. By signing it, they knowingly rejected an offer from the company MexCare, to arrange for three months of dialysis should they choose to return to Mexico, plus one year of health insurance.

Hernandez (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): he says she caught him off-guard being that she approached him by saying I know you don't want to return to your home country, go ahead and sign this document' so he went ahead and signed it.

Gilberto Lozano Hernandez makes decision on behalf of his wife, who was at the clinic getting dialyzed at the time, and is physically impaired. He said the social worker who approached him knows them well, so he trusted her:

Hernandez (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): He felt that it seemed like they were offering him something that would benefit his wife.

But now Hernandez is worried about what he did:

Hernandez (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): if he had read the document fully, and understood it before he signed it, he feels that he would not have signed that document, ever, because he understands now that he was rejecting medical assistance for his wife.

At least two other patients who signed the letter shared the concern. They're worried that if Grady decides to move the cut-off date for their care beyond January 3rd, they forfeited that benefit by signing the document.

Matt Gove, spokesperson for Grady Hospital, says the form has nothing to do with that:

GOVE: There's no reading between the lines. The document that any patient who has refused MexCare's services -- the form that they signed acknowledging that relates only to the MexCare offer.

Gove says Grady's contract with Fresenius could allow patients to stay at the private clinics until October, if they fail to find an alternative.

GOVE: If there were short-term outpatient needs would have access to a discounted rate to offer those.

A lawyer representing the patients in their lawsuit against Grady hopes that the hospital will tap into that discounted rate for the patients until October. By then, he hopes the case will have gone before jury for trial.

Odette Yousef, WABE News
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