Medical debt suits hit Texas patients

The hardest thing Amanda Korth said she ever experienced was battling breast cancer as she raised two little girls, all while managing the mountain of medical expenses her family amassed during her treatment and recovery. She said the fast-moving cancer could have taken her life in 2018, just months after she turned 30. It took more than a year to complete a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. Korth was steadily reminded of the illness’ cost by a barrage of bills, she said. “You get a bill from the anesthesiologist and then from the hospital and then from the first surgeon and then from the second surgeon,” Korth said. “One of the hardest things about having cancer is tracking all that stuff.” She got reconstructive surgery at a hospital in Williamson County. To handle the charges, Korth said she had both primary health insurance and a secondary plan to cover out-of-pocket costs.

To get reimbursed by her insurance provider, she said she needed an itemized receipt. Korth said she tried, repeatedly, to get that itemized receipt from the hospital but was unsuccessful. She ultimately gave up trying to get the receipt and the unpaid bill dropped off her radar, she said. Then she was sued in January 2021 for $1,000 plus $750 in attorney’s fees. We are not naming the hospital because its method of collecting outstanding debt from patients is legal. The lawsuit surprised her. Korth hadn’t received any phone calls or letters saying she was in danger of being sued, she said. The lawsuit against her is one of hundreds filed by that hospital against patients in Central Texas in recent years. Thousands of similar lawsuits initiated by other hospitals checker the state and country. The hospital declined requests for an interview. In a statement provided to KXAN, it said it does not want to sue patients and works to provide discounts and payment plans. Korth was already exhausted when the lawsuit arrived. Her insurance had paid tens of thousands, at least, related to the surgery, she said. She opted to pay the attorneys in a lump sum, roughly $1,700, effectively ending the case in March 2021.