While many hospital systems in Connecticut have stopped the practice of suing patients over unpaid bills, physicians, dentists, ambulance companies and other healthcare stakeholders are still taking patients to court, according to an April 20 report by KFF Health News.
KFF Health News and The Connecticut Mirror identified more than 16,000 healthcare-related debt cases in the state’s courts from 2019 to 2024. The database was assembled from online court records in partnership with January Advisors, a data science consulting firm.
Over the course of six years, most of Connecticut’s more than 25,000 licensed physicians and dentists did not pursue patients in court for outstanding balances. There were, however, more than 400 medical providers, including several hospital systems, that sued patients. This included radiologists, anesthesiologists, ophthalmologists, podiatrists, allergists and pediatricians. An ambulance company also sued more than 140 people.
Lawsuits by physicians and other nonhospital providers accounted for more than 80% of cases filed against patients and their families in 2024, according to the report. This was not the case five years prior, when hospital system lawsuits made up three-quarters of health-related collection cases in Connecticut’s courts.
According to the report, this shift moves medical debt into a “less regulated realm.” Because most hospitals are tax-exempt nonprofits, they must make financial aid available to low-income patients and follow federal regulations surrounding collection practices. Physicians, private medical groups and other stakeholders are generally exempt from these regulations.
Lawsuits are typically filed over bills of $3,000 or less, according to KFF’s data, but can still cause significant damage to families and their finances, leading to garnished wages, liens on homes and hundreds of dollars in debt added from interest or court fees.
“It’s really messed up,” Allie Cass-Wilson, RN, a nurse in Bristol, Conn., told the publication. “How can they do that to people?” She was reportedly sued over a $1,972 debt by an OB-GYN practice where she had been a patient years earlier. She did not contest the lawsuit, according to KFF.
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