Colorado hospital giant sues thousands as it fills county courtrooms with defendants and confusion 

I got a letter from a medical debt collector, for a debt I don't own. They committed a few violations of the FDCPA. Contacted a lawyer, they did not ask for money upfront, and made the debt collector face the consequences. The lawyer got paid handsomely, and I got some money as well. FIGHT those crooks!

Number 1 thing to remember: when someone claims a debt, you have the right to demand they prove you owe the debt to the person suing you.

If the bills were as clear as a bell, the hospitals wouldn't need to sue - what was it? 15,000+ people in one year? Looks like a shake down.

Having to sell your recently departed, beloved husband’s gift to you, to pay a medical bill is just heartbreaking! But being charged $1,634.34 by a hospital for them to tell you you’re having a panic attack, is what’s criminal here!

Time to start checking their non-tax exempt status. To many states ignore their duties to insure that non tax entities are living up to their not for profit status.

So my take away is - Don't go with UC Health. Thanks

As a paramedic I was sent to a chest pain call. We got there, evaluated the patient, and determined this patient was having a panic attack. My partner and I stayed on scene for over an hour just talking down the patient as she did not need an ER visit (and subsequent bill) or an ambulance bill for something that simply required an empathetic ear. My boss later chastised me for not transporting the patient to the ER and getting back into the system sooner. I told her my job is to help the patient whose emergency I am assigned, not add to their suffering by forcing them to incur further debt so our ambulance service can generate more unit hours. She didn’t like that so I had to talk to her supervisor as well. This went on until I found myself standing in a room with my supervisor, her supervisor, and her supervisor’s supervisor and ultimately the president of the company who still held his paramedic ticket and thankfully understood the realities of the job. If I could’ve referred to this video it probably wouldn’t have had to go that far. When corporate mindsets are allowed to rule a business that deals with helping people it becomes very easy to lose sight of the real reason you do that job.

Not in Colorado, but my wife had to go to a hospital one time and she was only there for a few hours. Two or three years later we got a bill from a doctor there for $900. I have GREAT insurance and it pays for everything (the way insurance used to be for most everyone). I've never experienced this before. I wrote back to the doctor's collector asking for a copy of the paperwork that states what kind of Doctor he is, how he examined my wife, and what his documented findings were for proof of service. I also told him that we provided our insurance info that night. The hospital has it on file. Why didn't he submit the bill to my insurance company, which the hospital was sure to collect the information on? I also said this was the first I have heard of a bill not being paid from that night. He was charging interest for a late fee. I told him waiting 3 years to contact me about an bill he did not submit to my insurance is not going to be his savings investment. After sending that letter, certified, I received another letter stating that the issue would no longer be pursued.

Health bills are inexplicable. Covers this, not that, so one procedure can't be covered. It's a torture chamber of finding out what time/supplies/per item cost really is. This is not health care.

Terrific report. Infuriating situation. The “bill died in committee.” Well of course it did. Our elected officials are in the pay of large corporations.

In Washington state, if you haven’t been billed within one year of the service date, the provider cannot demand any money from you.

I’ve had no issues paying UC Health, but I have noticed that their billing practices are beyond abusive. If just seems like every doctor in the area is tied to UC Health.

It's not healthcare when profits are priority #1

So now our FOR PROFIT Healthcare System is suing patients. I would be curious to see how many of those amounts they wrote off as business losses on their taxes for the years these debts originated.

It's double dipping. They will get money from the government and tax breaks for owed money but then wait a few years and sue. If the debt you owe has been written off for taxes or been paid through federal or state programs then you shouldn't owe.

Two weeks after my brother died, the hospital in Mesa, AZ put a lien on his house for the full amount. We didn't get a notice; it was on the County Recorder's office that I was checking. I quickly wrote them a snarky letter reminding him he was fully insured. The lien was removed the next day.

This seems to violate the fair debt collections act. There needs to be clear communication of the debt, including substantiating the debt to the debtor, before moving forward.

Someone has dishonest billing practices. Shame on you, UC Health!

Been there done that. I got sued for 8.27. So I let it go just to see where it would go. I ended up in court and the judge laughed it off. You should have seen the look on the lawyer’s face.

Great reporting, this is how journalism is supposed to work to help make the world a better place, by tracking down the awful people doing evil things and shining a light on them so bright that they cannot hide. You all should be very proud of this story.

Not in Colorado, but after my last surgery, I phoned the hospital billing and asked for the total remainder on my bill. (This was several months after my surgery). Paid it. Was told I had a zero balance. Then the next bill from the hospital came . . . Apparently “total owed” and “zero balance” have different meanings for a hospital.

I won’t go to extreme care because I fear the loss of my savings and cu health is my provider. Unless I’m in excruciating pain I’ll stay at home thank you. I’m in my seventies and just prefer palliative care. The less I see a doctor the better I like it. Health care in this country is an economic crime A crime against the ill. Squeezing them into even greater poverty. I have insurance. It’s still fear of debt that keeps me out of the game. That and feeling safer outside of the system as much as humanly possible 😮

Debt collection tried to sue me for bills of a family member I had never met. I just happened to be the next of kin. How can anyone be responsible for anyone else’s debts unless it’s an immediate family member? Some states allow that garbage.

As a current UC Health patient, I'm not surprised at all. They make it very clear on every level that they do not care about you. Their main goal is to take as much of your money as possible while doing everything they can to avoid actually treating you. I've had a doctor tell my insurance that he spoke with me for an hour when he actually stormed out as I was sobbing after spending 15 minutes berating me for asking questions about my own health. Shady shady shady

When a company sells contracts of debt to a collection agency and that agency tries to collect on that debt, do not ever admit you owe them any money and never agree to pay anything. If the collection agency takes you to court, they must provide proof of the debt, and if you never signed a contract with the collection agency, there is no way any judge in the US will force you to pay a debt to a third party company which you have no legal binding contract with. So never admit you owe any money or that you will pay a debt you may or may not owe.

I thought the hospital had an obligation to itemize the hospital bill.

I had a hospital fail to submit a bill to my insurance. I sent them a letter saying the deadline was approaching. They had 18 months to submit. They never submitted. Three years later they billed me for the total amount without ever submitting to insurance. I sent them a letter with a copy of the first letter and the fact that since they did not bill insurance they were in violation of contract to bill me. They dropped it

I’ve worked in a state agency where we regularly were sent fraudulent pass due invoices and then they sent to ‘collections’. Per state law my team could not and would not pay out on a collection u less there was an original invoice and proper documentation. I tell you we would get these phony collections at least 2-3 times per month

These people make zero effort to hide the fact that their #1 priority is profit.

If it turns out this hospital system uses Optum for their prescription service anyone who was exposed through the recent hack should happily return a lawsuit against them.

rural kansas hospitals have been doing this for years. and if you don't show up, they have you arrested for not complying with a court summons. no, you cannot go to debtors prison in the us, but you CAN be arrested for not showing up for a court order. if you legit can't pay it, you just have to speak to their lawyer and set up arrangements. every few years, they haul you back in to keep the judgement alive so that it never ages out.

Welcome to American healthcare -NOT!

Your wallet or your life healthcare!

GREED at its finest!

How is it legal if there wasn’t a bill sent?

So many of us dread the day when a health problem will force us into a hospital, because we know it will result in a medical bill we can't afford to pay. 500-5000 is tiny compared to what will inevitably happen if we live long enough. This system isn't right, and it doesn't have to be this way.

Debt collector isn't who you had a contract to pay though, legally you don't owe them a dime. The owed amount is between you and the hospital not you and the debt collectors.

How does this company even have standing if they don't own the debt?

The US health industry is not about getting people well. It's about MAXIMIZING profits. One way they do this is to make the billing as complicated as possible. More money is wasted, (by the people running the insurance) than is spent on medicine and doctors time.

I had a hospital bill that I had made arrangements to pay on an installment plan. I think it was for around $1200.00 in 1985. I was making the payments and was down to about $300.00 after about 9 months. Then I started getting calls from a debt collector. This went on for about a month, a call or two a day two or three days a week. I finally had enough and borrowed the money to pay it off in full. I paid the money to the hospital and got them out of the picture. I think it was the very next day the debt collector called and I got to tell him I didn’t owe that anymore, that I had paid the hospital off. He tried to say I couldn’t do that because his company is who I owed the money too. I said tough, I owed the hospital, not you, and I just cut you out of your money by paying the people I actually owed. Then I hung up on him. If you can pay the people you really owe the money to, do that and piss off/on a debt collector.

The medical system has wore me down over the years. Even with medical insurance I have ben paying on medical bills nonstop for 18 years.

This sounds like a boycott for this hospital system needs to be a priority.

Insurance use to pay their portion of the bill within 60 days. Now insurance companies have 365 days to pay their portion according to my local hospital. Though the hospital wants payment within 30, 60 or 90 days of incident. Though repeatedly I request an actual statement they will only work through their billing website. So after anything I have done at a doctors office or hospital I call and request an update. Then will call every 15 days after the first 30 days to push my bill through. When they send in the bill into insurance and there is a problem it will get sent back to the hospital for corrections or clarification. When this happens your bill may not get resubmitted with corrections to insurance. So it goes unpaid. A hospital bill I had was going on to two years and insurance still hadn’t paid because was the hospital was not correctly submitting the bill. I continued to check with the hospital about the bill till they finally said I was not liable for the bill any longer. It took two and half years for a dentist to get paid by insurance, but they never bothered me for payment they fought with the insurance company because they knew it was covered by insurance. I have been sent to collections for two bills both under $20, because if a bill is under $20 they don’t send out statements. One of the collections bill was for 6 cents. The collections office laughed when they saw the bill I came into pay.

Ah, yes, sick”care” in America; “Pretty sure you’re having a heart attack? Just sign these 12 pages of legalese that grant us complete access to your bank accounts and genetic material, allow us to do whatever we want without asking you for additional permission, and invite us to charge you and your *ahem* Insurance company any amount of money that occurs to us.” The good news is that while this may render you homeless and insolvent, it wasn’t a heart attack, and the $1500.00 paper blanket they gave you in the ER will keep you warm in the park this August.

This does not happen in other countries. We need universal single payor healthcare. We need to join the rest of the civilized world.

What would be interesting is to find out how much profit these "not for profit" hospitals made during the same time period. How much bonus money was paid to UCHealth administrators?

There's an important part of this story missing. Please tell us what to do if we are served!

Preapproved. No bills for over five years. No idea anything was due. Medmal on top of it all. They fired their entire accounting department at Christmas to cover their errors. $20,000.

Our healthcare system is insane.

Damn, I'm glad that I live in Germany. This would never happen here. Comprehensive healthcare.

You are entitled to a complete invoice showing the dates, costs, and provider of each service on the invoice. Send this to your health care provider.

I got sued by the state of Kentucky because of a FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLAR "tonsillectomy". That led me to having to file Chapter 13 five years ago. Completely destroyed my credit, of course. Last month that Chapter 13 plan was finally paid off, and it will come off my credit in 2 years. I'm finally able to get a credit-rebuilding credit card again. The medical system in the US is just horrendous. My husband who is from England hates the medical care here.

THIS is why so many people forego needed medical care. Its TOO expen$ive!

"Yeah it sucks" I'm getting tired of everyone saying that's the way it is as if we don't make the rules.

Some lawyers should get together and help all people and sue them.

They are on the hook for the dept for 6 years. Normally a letter saying that you have no money to pay will get a lowered amount, or be forgiven of the dept.

MEDICARE FOR ALL!!!

Only in America is this a problem. Health care would not be a for profit business, especially one without an accountability from the government. And once again Equal Justice Under The Law is a damned lie.

Centra Health in my area are cutthroat too. You have 6 months to pay your bill in full or they get a lein against your property or paycheck. They are notorious for double billing. All their billing is done from a location other than one of the sites, the site claims they know nothing about the billing, the billing location says they only know what the sites send them. They will not talk to each other. I drive 50 miles for healthcare to avoid Centra.

This is horrible

What a low rent scum hospital system! BOYCOTT!

The Punisher should visit these debt collectors AND the heads of the hospitals.

Another reason why I left Colorado and will never go back.

The judge needs to stand up to UC Health. If you cannot do business with ordinary citizens without suing them shut your doors.

Hospitals nationwide becoming monopolistic and predatory.

National healthcare would solve these problems

Shut the hospital down !!

Medical bills are the single largest cause of bankruptcy in the US. The medical business is a BIG business. Healthcare spending is 17.3% of the US GDP. The Auto Industry is only 3%. Your health is a big business with big profits. Until we move to single payer, it will get worse.

I've had medical appointments, procedures, and test contracted through the VA Community care program where I got billed for things the VA was paying. The most recent incident happened following a mammogram. Instead of billing VA Community care (Triwest) the agreed upon amount, the medical facility padded the bill, got their money from the VA, and then billed me for the padding. I got it straightened out but I live in fear that they might try pulling a stunt like this where I find myself in collections for a debt I never owed in the first place. All those people in collections should have gone straight to their insurance companies because they probably don't owe that money in the first place.

I'm Canadian who had an accident in Illinois. I spent 6 months tracking down an ambulance bill that I never received so I wouldn't get sued. Turns out they had my name and address wrong. Completely disorganized. 🤬

This does not happen under a single-payer healthcare system. Why the U.S. the only modernized country in the world that doesn't have one is a complete mystery to the rest of us.

They’re going to sue themselves out of business. People will demand to go anywhere else for medical care.

We require a national healthcare system NOW.

I am a doctor and I was sent to collections by hospital/radiology for multiple bills I never got and had no way to know about.

Can't that lawyer get a class action suit together to counter for wrongful billing?

Wow. Nice racket, Colorado! What next-- debtors prison?

But God forbid we have universal health Care.....🙄

This is disgusting. Normally when people are ripped off, you can kind of blame them for not being responsible enough but these people are 100% innocent and 100% getting screwed over.

In this hospital system there is a person who is behind this. Find out who it is, then develop a plan to move forward. Unmasking the person behind this is the first step They always like to hide.

We’ll be moving to Denver, I’ll never go to U.C. Health!

And also a truly CRAP hospital.

This is a great argument in favor of single-payer health care.

I'd love to say what I think of these people but, would probably end up in court!

How much money is UC Health spending on these lawsuits? It doesn’t seem very profitable. 🤑

You mean the same UC Health that refused to see me when I needed a breathing treatment due to asthma? The same UC health that said I’m faking it even though I have COPD? That UC Health?

Helping the sick and injured should never be a business. So glad I live in a decent country now with free healthcare….

Uc health provides Free health care to welfare dependent illegal immigrants

Preying on the weak.

They took her wedding ring. So shameful. We need Medicare for All.

The hospital should be forced to have its name in every single case.

They need to make a law that would make wage garnishment illegal

Health care costs in USA are ridiculous.

I know other hospitals who do this. They also pass the debt onto debt collectors. You must demand an itemized bill and check the charges. You may be double billed. Also, I recently was admitted to the hospital, or so I thought. I was there 3 days as an inpatient and discharged. 12 days later, I received a letter saying I was not an inpatient but an outpatient observation. This changed my insurance from Medicare part A to part B. This changed the billing process and how the insurance worked. They were supposed to tell me, by law, 36 hours from admission but I received the letter 12 days later.

A debt collector tried to get money from my dad for an ambulance trip, Dad had gone to the hospital by ambulance, then to a rehab center by ambulance, the first ambulance collected all his insurance info and passed it on. The hospital got paid, the rehab center got paid and one of the ambulance services got paid. I pointed this out to the collector and told them we were not paying for someone screwing up the paperwork for the second ambulance. Never heard back from them. Watching this with all these defendants I would want a detailed paper trail for each one if I were the judge.

Did the hospital change hands, did they change from in house billing to a private billing company or vise visa? I had surgery and needed an anathezalogist, the original office sold to the local hospital. A year after service I received a bill for about $3700. If the original office would have sent in the billing to my insurance company they would have been paid, but a year later they had to eat the charges due to failure of the original medical office…

There's no difference between what UC Health is doing and a bank keeping a penny in a client's closed bank account so they can charge them overdraft fees.

“First do no harm…”. It seems this hospital is all about money and not at all about patients

I once got a bill for $11,000 from a UC Health ER, because of a coding mistake. It took months to resolve and after my insurance company paid the $11,000, they sent me to collections saying the bill was actually $22,000 and the insurance had only covered half. A wonderful lady at my insurance company did a 3 way call with them and they admitted their mistake.

This happened to us once. (Disclaimer: we do not live in CO, and UC Health was not involved.) We got a bill from a collections company for a health bill, threatening legal proceedings. We called the 800 number and stated that we didn’t know what the bill was for, since it was not itemized, and would not pay until we received such information. We got an itemized bill from the health provider the following week, and were able to resolve the matter quickly.

Hospitals extort more money than any other business. It's about money and not your well-being.