Colorado AG wants hospitals to use their names when suing patients

Efforts to reform the Colorado hospital system’s billing practices are gaining momentum following and investigation. Led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, House Bill 1380 aims to force hospitals to use their own names when suing patients for unpaid medical bills.

UCHealth, the state’s largest care provider, sued over 15,000 patients between 2019 and 2023, mainly through third-party debt collectors. Legislators have since raised concerns about transparency, prompting a push for reform. However, a previous attempt to mandate hospitals to list themselves as plaintiffs was dropped following criticism from debt collection companies.

A large group of attorneys protested on behalf of debt collection companies, arguing that the section of the bill that required hospitals to be named as plaintiffs could violate patient privacy. The example they cited was that some cancer patients could consider it a violation of privacy if their cancer treatment centers were publicly listed as a plaintiff in a suit against them.

The bill would prevent debt collection agencies from taking any legal action against a patient unless it either purchases entire ownership of the debt or names the originating hospital as a plaintiff. Additionally, it would bar debt collection agencies from seeking a warrant or otherwise promoting the arrest of a patient in order to collect debt. KJCT 8