Cancer patients say this hospital denied them care [Video]

For almost three decades, Barbara Quarrell cared for patients as a nurse in Las Cruces, New Mexico, working for many years at Memorial Medical Center, a nonprofit community hospital owned by the city and the county.

So when she received a devastating cancer diagnosis in 2022, she headed to Memorial for treatment. “That’s my hospital,” she told NBC News. “My people are there.”

Memorial is now operated as a for-profit facility by Lifepoint Health, a hospital chain backed by private equity, and it had other plans for her, Quarrell said.

When her doctor called to schedule chemotherapy, the facility asked about her health insurance. She was covered by True Health New Mexico, a marketplace plan under the Affordable Care Act for which she paid $800 a month.

No go, Memorial said, according to her doctor’s contemporaneous notes, which Quarrell provided to NBC News. Quarrell and her husband quit their jobs …