Over the past five years, more than 15,000 lawsuits have been filed against UCHealth patients over medical debts. But if you are one of the people being sued, you might not see the hospital system’s name on the papers.
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John Ingold with The Colorado Sun told KUNC UCHealth used to file bill collection lawsuits under its own name—but now the vast majority are in the name of a third-party debt collector.
“Like many hospitals, UCHealth took a pause on debt collection practices for about the first six months of the pandemic,” Ingold said. “Then when they started back up, they were using a system where they, quote-unquote, ‘assigned’ this debt to a debt collector. And then the debt collector sues under its own name.”
Ingold told KUNC it’s difficult to determine how common this practice is because the process is not transparent to the public. He said The Colorado Sun and 9News worked together on the story and asked KFF Health News about it.
“They reached out to some of their own experts who said that they've heard of it kind of in bits and pieces around the country,” Ingold said. “Yet UCHealth would tell us that they think this is the normal way of doing things in terms of collecting medical debt.”
The Sun’s collaborative work did identify a couple of other hospital systems in Colorado that say they use a similar system. One is Common Spirit, which owns hospitals including St. Anthony's, Lakewood and Longmont United hospitals. Children's Hospital Colorado also says it does this.
A class-action lawsuit currently pending against one of UCHealth's debt collection vendors, Credit Service Company, argues this sort of practice actually violates state law.
“It argues that if you're going to be filing a lawsuit for debt that's owed to you, that needs to be your name on the case - that you can't have this third party suing over debt that's owed to you,” Ingold said.
Meanwhile, UCHealth said it has financial assistance available for uninsured and low-income patients.
Ingold said if it does come down to a lawsuit, there are some resources to look toward.
“If you do get sued, there’s potential help available through an organization called Colorado Legal Services,” Ingold said. “There's also an organization called the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative that helps patients untangle and fight their medical bills.”
