UCHealth faced scrutiny after suing patients through third-party collectors, sparking state reforms.
For years, patients across Colorado were taken to court over unpaid medical bills through debt collectors, without knowing the full story of who was suing them. UCHealth, one of the biggest names in healthcare in the state, didn’t always file lawsuits in its own name. Instead, it used third-party debt collectors to file the legal claims. Many patients who ended up with court judgments against them had no idea their case had anything to do with UCHealth, the same place where they received care. A joint investigation by 9NEWS and The Colorado Sun brought these actions into public view, and it didn’t go unnoticed.
Researchers from Stanford, George Washington University, and PatientRightsAdvocate.org were so struck by what they read in the investigation that they launched their own national review. Their findings confirmed what the Colorado reporters had uncovered. UCHealth had become one of the more aggressive hospital systems in the country when it came to leveraging debt collectors and suing patients. Cynthia Fisher from PRA told 9NEWS that they decided to focus on Colorado specifically because of the original reporting. She described UCHealth’s collection efforts as unusually forceful and deeply hidden from view.
Some of the people who ended up in court said they never realized their medical bills had gotten to that point. That’s partly because the lawsuits didn’t come from UCHealth directly, but from companies that most patients wouldn’t associate with the hospital at all. This strategy helped UCHealth stay out of the national spotlight for a while, even as other hospital systems were being called out for similar actions. The lawsuits began to pick up in 2020 and carried on quietly until reporters and researchers began piecing things together.
When pressed for comment, UCHealth argued that the recent study doesn’t reflect the way it does business now. A spokesperson said that the report included data up to six years old and didn’t show the steps they’ve taken to inform patients better and reduce billing problems. The hospital system also pushed back on claims that it takes money directly from patients’ bank accounts. It said it doesn’t do that, nor does it report debt to credit agencies.
Still, the lawsuits did lead to wage garnishments in many cases. In fact, UCHealth even garnished the paychecks of some of its own employees who had outstanding medical bills. This made it even clearer to some that the issue was bigger than a few scattered billing errors. For years, these practices were nearly impossible to track. That changed when the investigative work started connecting the dots and showing the pattern.
The legal loophole that allowed UCHealth to sue under the names of other companies is now closed. State lawmakers passed new rules that require hospital systems to sue under their own names, making it easier for the public to understand what’s going on. That change didn’t happen by accident—it came as a direct result of the public pressure sparked by the original reporting.
Now, the story has moved from a local controversy to part of a wider national conversation. Other states and hospital systems may soon face similar scrutiny. While UCHealth says it’s doing better today, the details of how it handled past billing and debt collections continue to raise questions. For many patients who were affected, the changes came too late to make a difference in their own cases. But the hope is that future patients will face more transparency and fairness as a result of everything that has come to light.
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UCHealth’s private practice of suing patients gets national attention
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