Where physicians have become more litigious than hospitals over unpaid patient bills

In one state in one recent year, hospitals sued almost 5,000 patients who were delinquent on their bills. By contrast, physicians and other non-hospital providers sued well fewer than 2,000. 

The state is Connecticut. The year was 2019. A new investigation by CT Mirror and KFF Health News shows hospitals and non-hospitals suing patients at about the same clip, around 1,200 suits a year, as of 2022. 

By now those two provider-plaintiff categories seem to have switched places in a big way: In 2024 hospitals cut back to just a few hundred lawsuits while non-hospital providers handily topped 1,000 and were trending upward. 

In fact, of all suits against patients filed in 2024, physician practices and other non-hospital healthcare entities accounted for 80% of cases, the news outlets report April 19.

Some other noteworthy observations to emerge from the joint investigation: 

• Many hospitals have stopped taking patients to court over unpaid bills because they don’t want the negative publicity. 
   
• Overall, the journalism outfits found, Connecticut courts saw more than 16,000 healthcare-related debt cases from 2019 to 2024. 
   
• Over that six-year period, more than 400 Connecticut-based medical providers, including several hospital systems, sued their patients. Among those filing lawsuits were radiologists, anesthesiologists, eye doctors, podiatrists, allergists, and pediatricians.
   
• Dentists, periodontists and other dental providers filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against patients. And ambulance companies sued more than 140 people.
   
• The most litigious non-hospital healthcare provider was a radiology business that filed more than 1,000 suits over the six-year study period. Also filing suits numbering in the hundreds were an orthopedic group (almost 600 suits), an anesthesia practice (close to 450), a company selling orthopedic braces and other medical supplies (400+) and an asthma & allergy center (200+).

The CT Mirror/KFF Health News article names several of the plaintiffs and quotes a handful patients who have been sued. 

One of the latter is a 59-year-old man who found himself on the hook for $3,644 with an ortho practice after having shoulder surgery. 

“I’d pay it if I could, I guess,” the man says. “But I don’t even know where next month’s rent is coming from. I’m trying to climb out as best I can. I guess this is just one more thing to shovel in.”

The practice’s chief executive sent a statement to the reporters stating that, as an independent physician operation, “we strive to balance compassion for patients with the financial responsibility required to sustain our practice.”

The report is available in full for free.