A Pakistani-American doctor, who forgave more than half a million dollars in outstanding debts from nearly 200 patients, says his decision was partly driven by the hard times people are facing during the coronavirus outbreak.
Dr Omar Atiq, founder of the Arkansas Cancer Clinic shut down the facility in February 2020 after providing thirty years of services including cancer treatments ranging from chemotherapy and radiation therapy and tests such as CAT scans.
After briefly pursuing the patients, Dr. Atiq said he realized a lot of people could not pay even part of their bills so he and his wife decided to forgive the outstanding dues.
“I hope this note finds you well,” wrote Dr Atiq in a letter sent out just before Christmas.
“The Arkansas Cancer Clinic was proud to have you as a patient. Although various health insurances pay most of the bills for the majority of patients, even the deductibles and co-pays can be burdensome.”
“Unfortunately, that is the way our health care system currently works,” he added and informed patients that the cancer clinic was closing practice after over 29 years of service.
“The clinic has decided to forego all balances owed to the clinic by its patients,” said the note. “Happy holidays.”
“We thought there was not a better time to do this than during a pandemic that has decimated homes, people’s lives and businesses and all sorts of stuff,” Dr Atiq told Arkansas Online.
“We just thought we could do it, and we wanted to, so we went ahead and did it.”
The doctor is also a professor at UAMS College of Medicine and an oncologist at the UAMS William P Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
Dr. Atiq moved to Pine Buff in 1991 after completing a fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
It really is fate,” he told Arkansas Online. I moved my family to Arkansas after receiving a call from Jefferson Regional Medical Centre with a job offer.”
He added that the decision to move was “life-changing”.
The doctor became the first non-white president of the Arkansas Medical Society in 2013 and in 2018 he was named chairperson-elect of the board of governors of the American College of Physicians.
“We have been very grateful. This has been home for a long time. We are grateful for the opportunity for what has happened to our lives here,” he said.
“I believe the opportunities that have come my way are, in part, because of where I am.”
Dr Atiq says his clinic has amount of outstanding debt that it does partly because “we have never refused to see a patient.”
“Not for lack of health insurance or funds nor for any other reason,” Atiq said. “I’ve always considered it a high honor and privilege to be someone’s physician – more important than anything else.”
