Colorado Lawmakers Take Aim at UCHealth’s Deceptive Debt-Collection Practices 

By Consumers for Quality Care, on May 1, 2024

State lawmakers in Colorado have introduced legislation that would prohibit all entities, including health care systems, from obscuring their own name when they use third-party debt-collection agencies to sue consumers over outstanding debts, according to The Colorado Sun.  

This bill was filed in response to The Colorado Sun’s reporting earlier this year about UCHealth, the state’s largest nonprofit hospital system, which was found to have engaged in this predatory behavior. Yet although UCHealth was one of the biggest perpetuators of this practice, The Colorado Sun’s reporting uncovered several examples of other hospitals and medical groups doing the same thing. 

House Bill 1380 would require debt collection lawsuits to list the debt’s owner, in this case a health care system, as a plaintiff. Supporters of the legislation, such as Carly Weisenberg, Lead Health Care Organizer at the Center for Health Progress, believe these reforms will provide much-needed clarity for consumers. If the legislation passes, they will be able to know who exactly is suing them and what exactly they’re being sued for. “Deceiving people who owe money should never be a strategy to hide affiliation,” said Weisenberg. 

CQC applauds Colorado lawmakers for taking action to put an end to these predatory medical debt collection tactics, which harm consumers and worsen the medical debt crisis. CQC urges nonprofit hospitals to uphold their end of the bargain by better serving their communities and delivering care for patients who need it most.