When my friend Sharon told me about her experience following her breast cancer surgery and how she faced significant harassment and deceptive medical debt collection practices, I was outraged. In a news report, she explained how distressing this experience was for her. Moreover, as she put it, she was constantly “thinking about other women that might have had a double mastectomy for breast cancer [and] were now [also] being victimized.”
Sharon was right. Others were mistreated too. Our office went to work and ensured that those other patients–about 40 of them–were returned almost $13,000. But we didn’t stop there. We also got to work crafting legislation to ensure others don’t face similar deceptive and unfair tactics by medical debt collectors. The painful reality is that medical debt is more common than any other form of debt. And it’s the number one cause of bankruptcies.
Working with a great team of legislators–Senators Lisa Cutter and Sonia Jacquez Lewis and Representatives Kyle Brown and Mike Weissman–I am pushing for a set of new protections for patients. Under this new proposed law (explained here), medical debt collection will be paused while appeals of charges are pending, and our office will have the authority to prevent medical debt collections on illegal surprise bills. And Colorado will follow the lead of other states in capping the allowable interest on medical debt at 3% so a patient’s medical debt doesn’t spiral out of control.
I believe in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our work with Sharon on this issue exemplifies this principle. When she shared her concern with us, she enabled our office to get to work helping others in the same position. If you have a complaint about illegally unfair or deceptive treatment, please contact our office at stopfraudColorado.gov so we can help or at least warn others about emerging scams.
