DENVER — UCHealth patients have filed a lawsuit against a debt collector that previously sued them over unpaid medical debt.
The lawsuit alleges Credit Service Company (CSC) operated as if it bought medical debt from UCHealth and other providers. A lawyer for the plantiffs called their practices predatory and illegal.
"This company we allege behaves as if it owns the debt, they sue in their own name to collect on the debt, meaning they sue patients in their own name to collect the debt, they communicate with patients about their personal medical circumstances," said David Seligman, an attorney with Towards Justice.
Cathy Woods-Sullivan said she was sued by CSC despite her claims that she attempted to negotiate the debt with UCHealth.
Her husband passed away in August 2016 and then her daughter started having medical problems in the same month. Woods-Sullivan had her own health concerns that sent her to the hospital in January 2018. It seemed like one thing after another and her bills started piling up.
"My daughter was served at home at 9 p.m., and she didn’t know what was going on, so they served her," Woods-Sullivan said. "She was 14-years-old at the time and they served her, and she gave me the paperwork in the morning and that’s when I found out that I was being sued."
Denver7 reached out to CSC and the company's legal counsel responded with the following statement:
The allegations made against Credit Service Company in the lawsuit are factually incorrect and contrary to well established Colorado case law. Every step taken by CSC is in accordance with the law that applies to our profession and is under the auspices of qualified attorneys. Many of the allegations are just plain wrong; the legal conclusions are all clearly in error.
The Plaintiff’s incorrectly allege that CSC is a medical-debt purchaser. It is not. We act as an assignee to many service providers that are owed money and need help with collections.
CSC believes this lawsuit is frivolous; we have been a compassionate, empathetic, and ethical debt collector for more than 70 years. We expect the Court to dismiss this action and allow us to continue to serve our communities.
Given CSC’s long track record of more than complying with State and Federal debt collection laws, we are surprised that we are the target of this suit.
