Last summer, a rural hospital on the Kansas plains began filing dozens of lawsuits against patients who hadn’t paid their medical bills.
In July and August 2023, four of every five sheriff-delivered court summonses in Pratt County were from Pratt Regional Medical Center. In September, 95% of civil cases set to be heard in Magistrate Judge Ronald Sylvester’s Pratt courtroom were brought by the hospital. By December, it had sued some 400 people in a county of 9,000—more than it had in the past five years combined.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Cynthia Mehlhorn recalls an officer telling her when she got her court summons for $5,619 in outstanding hospital bills last year, “you’re not the only one.”
The debt-collection spree is an example of how some hospitals in recent years have become more aggressive in recouping bills from the estimated more than 15 million Americans who have medical debt. The issue can be particularly acute in rural areas like Pratt, where residents are more likely to be older and uninsured, and hospitals are under financial stress.