BOSTON (AP) – A Springfield hospital has been placing liens on the homes of patients to collect on bills, a move that is raising the eyebrows of health care advocates and state officials.

Baystate Medical Center over the past 15 months took 300 patients to court and had liens placed on the homes of 46 patients, the Boston Sunday Globe reported. State officials plan to look into the practice.

“Hospitals should not put liens on poor people’s homes,” Paul Cote, state commissioner of Health Care Finance and Policy, told the Globe. “They would have to have a compelling case, such as someone doesn’t have an income, but has millions of dollars in assets.”

Cote oversees the “free care” program, which helps the poor pay medical bills. He said he would look into Baystate to see if it is violating state regulations that protect the poor from unfair collection methods.

“I’m trying to pay the bills, but I need time,” Chicopee resident Beverly Ann Pise, 51, said of the $3,600 lien on her home. “Now I’m worried they can take the house.”

Pise, who has a kidney condition, owes Baystate $3,000 for her three-day emergency hospital stay in July 2002. She works two jobs and her husband has a seasonal job that leaves him unemployed in the winter.

Keith McLean-Shinaman, Baystate’s chief financial officer, said liens are only used as a last resort.

“If you’re giving out care that costs money, someone has to pay for it,” he said. “I’m not saying the burden should be on the uninsured, but we need to make changes on a societal level to deal with this situation.”

Baystate provides $15 million in free care to the poor annually. The hospital’s profit last year was $24.8 million.

Liens allow creditors to collect their debt when a home is sold. They can sometimes force the sale of a home, although Baystate officials said that hasn’t happened with them.

“Liens are an unacceptable practice,” said John McDonough, executive director of Health Care For All. “We’re dealing with folks whose only offense is they got seriously ill and weren’t able to obtain decent health coverage.”