Yes... it is the same thing as the hospital eating the bill. Instead of it being an asset in accounts receivable, they move it to bad debt which is booked as an expense. Basically they move it from money they expect as income to a cost which increases expenses and lowers the bottom line.

If there's no chance of collecting and no insurance they pretty much have to. They won't waste money in lawyers fees and court fees suing someone who has no assets. Or in this scenario someone who has passed. They will probably call the family a few times because some people may think they have to pay the bill, but I'm pretty sure (as I said above) that the family has no responsibility to pay his debts. Chris' estate will be evaluated i.e. they'll take all his assets and then see what all his debts where then liquidate the assets to pay off whichever debts they can and then it's done.