UCHealth officials told The Sun and 9News that the health system sued more than 15,000 patients between 2019 and 2023 over debts. Since 2000, almost none of the cases has listed UCHealth as a plaintiff.
Multiple patients sued over UCHealth debts told The Sun and 9News that the practice of suing under the debt collectors’ name caused them confusion as they struggled to understand who was suing them and what the bill was for.
The bill, which is supported by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, also contains two other significant provisions related to debt collection.
One prohibits collection agencies from seeking warrants for the arrest of people being sued over debts, though it does not forbid judges from issuing warrants if a defendant is nonresponsive to court orders. The second creates new regulations for so-called debt management services providers — companies that work with people to consolidate and pay off debts.
I’m sure they’d love the PR and media coverage over these lawsuits.
There was an article in the Sun last month about this too and in there, UC Health said something like, “We pass these unpaid bills to collection agencies, and then they sue the patients. What’s the problem?” but clearly, this was the motivation: to hide their name from the courts. I wasn’t surprised to see this article/legistlation come up this week.
How in hell can they seek warrants to have people arrested for medical debt?
Not that I think hospitals would care about being named plaintiffs, credit card companies certainly don’t. But it sounds like they can still sell the debt to a collections agency and dodge this.
Though the plaintiff and the creditor should be one in the same.
