In June, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law HB24-1380, Regulation of Debt-Related Services. The law marked a milestone in a five-year investigation by a group of reporters into the debt-collection practices of the University of Colorado Health System (UCHealth).

Starting in 2019, journalists from five news outlets collected data on the number of lawsuits UCHealth brought against patients who had unpaid medical bills, according to reporting from Chris Vanderveen, the director of special projects for television station 9News, and John Ingold, a health reporter and cofounder of the nonprofit news outlet, The Colorado Sun.

Dubbed “Diagnosis: Debt Colorado,” the reporting project stems from a partnership led by the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) and KFF Health News and included contributions from The Colorado Sun, 9News, Colorado Newsline and The Sentinel. In a series stemming from KFF Health News’ reporting on medical debt in the United States, the reporters explored the causes, scale and effects of medical debt on Colorado’s residents.

UCHealth is the state’s largest hospital system, collecting more than $6 billion in patient care revenue annually, Ingold and Vanderveen reported on Feb. 19, “UCHealth sues thousands of patients every year. But you won’t find its name on the lawsuits.”

In its mission statement, UCHealth says, “We improve lives,” the reporters noted. But from 2019 through 2023, the health system and its debt collectors filed 15,710 lawsuits, UCHealth revealed in response to questions from Ingold and Vanderveen, the two reporters wrote in that Feb. 19 article. That’s an average of 3,142 lawsuits per year, or more than eight per day, they noted. Yet almost none of the lawsuits were filed in UCHealth’s name, they added.

Veiled legal actions

In a broadcast on June 27, Vanderveen summarized the reporters’ findings. “As Colorado’s largest and most prominent medical provider insisted it was ‘not hiding anything,’ an exhaustive investigation discovered UCHealth, for years, used what amounted to a loophole in the state’s court system to keep private its aggressive bill collection practices,” Vanderveen wrote.

While journalists often cover hospitals’ confrontational billing and collection tactics, the investigative work of Vanderveen, Ingold and other journalists in this collaboration is significant because it shows how health reporters can uncover lawsuits when a hospital or health system conceals its legal actions against patients.

For their work, the collaborative efforts were particularly useful as were more traditional reporting strategies: soliciting patients’ hospital bills over multiple years, visiting courthouses when debt-collection cases were heard, and gathering the names of defendants and lawyers in those cases.

This spring, the investigation prompted the Colorado General Assembly to pass HB24-1380 to close a loophole that allowed UCHealth to sue thousands of patients under another business’ name, Vanderveen reported. Starting this fall, the law will force hospital systems to sue patients under their own names on debts the systems still own.

After the legislature passed HB24-1380, state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, praised the journalists’ work. “I really do think we owe you a little bit of thanks — maybe a lot of thanks and gratitude — for sure, because it pointed us in the right direction,” said Jaquez Lewis, a sponsor of the bill.

How the project unfolded

Early in 2020, UCHealth ended its years-long practice of suing patients under its own name, a change that was not disclosed to the state legislature or the public, Vanderveen reported. “The decision allowed UCHealth to continue to sue patients — roughly eight per day for years — with virtually no way to track its legal efforts,” the TV station explained. By allowing two of its third-party debt collectors to use their names as plaintiffs, “UCHealth turned a once-transparent process into a confusing and opaque mess for many of its patients,” the news station added.

When journalists asked about the issue, UCHealth’s administrators said the health system had sued more than 15,000 patients in five years, becoming one of the most aggressive litigants in Colorado, 9News explained.

Soliciting data from patients’ bills

Years before collaborating with other journalists to report on medical debt, Vanderveen asked 9News’ viewers to send in their medical bills. “Sometime between 2016 and 2018, we started a bill-solicitation program called, ‘Show Us Your Bills,’ and we got a lot of submissions,” he said in a phone interview. From those bills, Vanderveen built a database showing how often each hospital filed lawsuits, including the most aggressive litigants.

In 2020, COVID-19 forced all health care journalists to postpone their regular work, but later that year, Vanderveen became curious about how many hospitals filed debt-collection suits during the pandemic. His data showed a sudden drop in lawsuits from UCHealth.

Also in 2020, two Kaiser Health News journalists — senior correspondent Jay Hancock and data editor Elizabeth Lucas — were Pulitzer Prize finalists for reporting in 2019 on the predatory billing practices of the University of Virginia Health System. In an eight-part series, Hancock and Lucas exposed how UVA “relentlessly squeezed low-income patients — many into bankruptcy — forcing the nonprofit, state-run hospital to change its tactics,” the Pulitzer prize committee wrote, as AHCJ reported in a tip sheet published that same year.

Did UVA’s experience prompt UCHealth to change its tactics? Vanderveen wondered. “On the surface, it appeared as if UCHealth had a change of heart because no more lawsuits were filed under UCHealth’s name,” he explained. “It went from about hundreds per quarter to like two or three per quarter.” About that same time, he heard about Credit Service Co., a debt collector in Colorado Springs, that was a party to some UCHealth lawsuits against patients, he said. [See image from 9News.]

A trove of data in court filings

As Vanderveen’s data showed, UCHealth never stopped suing patients in early 2020. While it didn’t do so in a publicly traceable way, he could still find cases by searching court records for Credit Service Co. as a plaintiff, he said.

Visiting the courthouse was also useful, Ingold added. “Going to court is something I would highly recommend, because your local jurisdiction is probably hearing many debt-collection cases on the same days,” he said. “Plus, the lawyers who handle those cases are all the same people.” These courts had long dockets of cases that debt collectors filed, he noted. 

Inside Colorado’s courts, the reporters found defendants waiting to respond to debt-collection summonses. “Chris [Vanderveen] would walk up and down a row of people, and ask, ‘Who’s here for a UCHealth case,’ and ‘Who’s being sued by the Credit Service Company?” Ingold said. Several defendants raised their hands, he noted. At the same time, Ingold found people named in suits that other health care entities brought, leading to more stories.

In addition, the reporters called legal services groups, consumer assistance programs, law school clinics and any other organization helping consumers, especially those with low income, Ingold said. They would have at least some insight into who is suing over medical debt.

Another reporting strategy is to seek defendants who filed answers to complaints, meaning the case may go to a hearing or trial, Ingold advised. In those case files, reporters may find creditors’ names, he said. Also, defendants who challenge these cases may want to talk to reporters, he added.

The value of collaboration

One of the most important lessons learned was the teamwork that came from the collaborative nature of the project. At COLab, journalists no longer compete as they once did to be the first to break stories. Instead, COLab journalists from different newsrooms work on projects together to serve the public good, Ingold explained.

“What we produce for the news collaborative can be distributed to pretty much any newsroom in Colorado that wants it,” he added said. “My story about the lawsuits ran on our site, at www.ColoradoSun.com, and it ran on the websites of the other news collaborators. Also, it ended up in The Denver Post and a number of other places around the state.”

COLab makes efficient use of the limited staff left behind in many newsrooms when fewer news outlets can devote multiple staff to any one project, he commented. “Also, we can help all the participating newsrooms by providing content everybody can use,” he added.

In addition to working with multiple newsrooms in Colorado, COLab also worked with Noam N. Levey, a senior correspondent at KFF Health News, who has led KFF’s award-winning project, Diagnosis: Debt.

Levey introduced the Colorado reporters to the staff at the Urban Institute who have researched how medical debt and collections affect immigrants and people of color, said Tina Griego, COLab’s managing editor. Data from the Urban Institute led to this story, “Medical Debt Affects Much of America, but Colorado Immigrants Are Hit Especially Hard,” by Rae Ellen Bichell and Lindsey Toomer, of Colorado Newsline, Griego explained. Bichell is a Colorado correspondent for KFF Health News and Toomer covers politics and social justice for Colorado Newsline, which is part of the States Newsroom, a nonprofit covering state capitals.

Resources

• “UCHealth sues thousands of patients every year but doesn’t use its own name to do it,” Colorado Sun and 9News, Feb. 16, 2024.
• “Colorado hospital giant’s lawsuits fill county courtrooms with defendants and confusion,” 9News, March 1, 2024.
• “Medical Debt Affects Much of America, but Colorado Immigrants Are Hit Especially Hard,” April 3, 2024.
• “Hospitals suing patients over unpaid bills would have to put their names on lawsuits under new Colorado measure,” Colorado Sun, April 12, 2024.
• “Loophole allowed UCHealth to sue thousands of patients under another business’ name,” 9News, June 27, 2024.

Relief pitcher Kenley Jansen will not travel with the Boston Red Sox for their road series against the Colorado Rockies this week.

As shared by The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, Jansen said he has had to have his heart shocked three different times after pitching at Coors Field, in 2012, 2018 and 2022. Jansen does not want to risk triggering his atrial fibrillation this time around, so he is bowing out of the trip altogether.

Jansen underwent ablation surgeries in response to the 2012 and 2018 episodes, per The Boston Herald’s Gabrielle Starr.

Knowing that he wasn’t traveling to Denver, Jansen pitched on one day’s rest against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday. He allowed three hits, a home run and three earned runs in the Red Sox’s eventual 9-6 loss.

Jansen already blew a save Saturday, allowing Los Angeles to force extra innings by giving up two hits, a walk and the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth.

Before his pair of lackluster performances against his former team, Jansen was 3-1 with a 2.16 ERA, 1.080 WHIP and .198 batting average against on the season. He had converted 15 consecutive save opportunities, while Boston had notched wins in each of his previous 13 appearances.

Jansen now boasts a 3.06 ERA, 1.189 WHIP, batting average against and 1.0 WAR through 34 appearances in 2024. The 36-year-old closer narrowly missed out on his fifth All-Star appearance earlier this month, but he did recent jump into fifth place on the all-time saves list.

The Red Sox are now 1.0 game out of the playoff picture, trailing the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals in the AL Wild Card race following the sweep at the hands of the Dodgers.

Colorado, meanwhile, boasts the third-worst record in baseball.

The Red Sox have made just one trip to Coors Field in the last 10 seasons, going 2-0 in 2019. They are 7-3 in their last 10 road games against the Rockies, none of which Jansen appeared in.

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A man who forged keys out of silverware in order to steal mail from apartment mailboxes has been indicted on federal fraud charges.

Adam Christopher Turner, 40, was arrested in May and indicted late last month by a federal grand jury. 

The Colorado Springs resident is accused of using his fake keys to access “cluster boxes” at apartment buildings in three cities. His break-ins have been traced back to February 2023, according to details in his indictment.

Turner was first arrested November 12, 2023 by Lone Tree PD after he used stolen credit cards at several businesses. On him, Lone Tree officers found 20 different credit cards from 20 different people. They also discovered a half dozen keys, all master keys to mailboxes, or “arrow keys.” Turner apparently had fabricated them out of dinner knives.

The Lone Tree arrest violated the terms of a deferred sentence Turner received for a burglary in 2022. But Turner only received a probation sentence for both infractions, according to the indictment. 

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Soon after his Lone Tree arrest, a detective with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office’s Financial Crimes Unit began investigating incidents in which stolen credit cards were used at Colorado Springs businesses. Ultimately, the detective learned about mailbox thefts from 16 victims in Colorado Springs, Peyton and Parker. And, as surveillance video rolled in from a number of Front Range businesses, the detective quickly identified Turner as the culprit who was using the victims’ stolen credit cards. 

A Peyton resident’s debit card was used for a $793 purchase at a Walmart in Colorado Springs. 

One Parker resident’s credit card was used to buy $3,523 in goods from Scheels in Colorado Springs. 

Another Peyton residents credit card was used to buy $3,870 of products at Scheels in Johnstown. 

Yet another Peyton resident’s Home Depot credit card was used to snag $1,086 worth.

Two victims living in Colorado Springs and Peyton had their Target credit cards used to buy a total of $2,426 and $2,517. 

In one surveillance video, the El Paso detective saw Turner leaving one store wearing a sweatshirt he had illegally purchased earlier at a different store. 

The detective also saw Turner driving a black Camaro or a black Dodge Ram pickup to the stores he visited. In one video, the pickup truck’s plates were visible. They were the plates which registered to the vehicle owned by a mail theft victim in Peyton. 

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After studying five month’s of infractions, authorities obtained a search warrant in May – three weeks after his Lone Tree sentencing – for Turner’s residence, vehicles and cell phones. 

At his residence, investigators found thousands of dollars worth of new or like-new tools, mechanical, and electrical equipment, according to the indictment. In a storage unit rented by Turner, they found eight counterfeit arrow keys co-mingled with a collection of dinner knives.   

Inside the truck was stolen mail, including gift cards and credit cards, and two more arrow keys.  

The truck was also equipped with an electronic license plate flipper. The device allowed Turner to flip the stolen license plate over the truck’s legitimate license plate while engaging in illegal activity.

Turner’s cell phone records also indicated his phone was in the area of the stores at the times the stolen credit cards were used, per the indictment.

Guns were found in the residence and in the Camaro, along with amounts of methamphetamine. Drug offenses are among the charges in the indictment. Being a convicted felon, Turner was not legally permitted to own the firearms. 

Turner made his first appearance in federal court July 8. He is already set for a trial in late August. His probation in the Lone Tree case has been revoked as well.