Unpaid medical bills leading to liens on homes

Collection agencies are placing liens on the homes of people who have unpaid medical bills in Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Vermont, according to an investigative report from NBC News.

Many of the medical bills arrive after care is delivered and are a surprise to the patients. Left unpaid, the bills, which are often for thousands of dollars, can rack up thousands more in interest. One collection agency has put liens on at least 170 homes in Colorado because of unpaid medical bills, according to the March 19, 2019 NBC News article.

Ashish Jha, K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, called the practice “unconscionable.”

“This is really a failure of our system to stick people with these kinds of bills that really have no justification whatsoever,” Jha said. “Physician groups see this as a way to make extra money on the backs of patients and I think that’s a very serious problem.”

Read the NBC News article: Surprise medical bills lead to liens on homes and crippling debt