Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is now being sued by his own former patients. A class action filed Thursday says his OB-GYN practice charged struggling mothers 18% interest on their medical bills. Kansas law caps it at 15%. And it lands days before Kansans decide whether to send him back to the Senate.
The Lawsuit
The suit was filed in Barton County District Court against Marshall and his former practice, Heartland Regional OBGYN in Great Bend. It accuses them of a “callous and predatory” debt-collection scheme aimed at patients who were often low-income, uninsured or underinsured.
The core claim is simple. Marshall’s practice frequently tacked 18% annual interest onto unpaid bills. Kansas law says 15% is the limit.
The plaintiffs want the case certified as a class action, plus restitution, damages and a jury trial. These are allegations. No court has ruled on them.
Arrested Three Times Over a Baby Delivery Bill
The lead plaintiff is Meischa Zimmerman. She was Marshall’s obstetrics patient in 2009. His practice sued her over a $3,596 bill for delivering her child, plus 18% interest.
According to the filing, collection on that debt led to her arrest on three separate occasions. The New York Times reported that one of those arrests came while she was eight months pregnant, at home with her 2-year-old daughter.
Zimmerman has also appeared in a TV ad for Marshall’s Democratic opponent, the Rev. Adam Hamilton.
700 Patients Sued, 81 Arrested
This didn’t come out of nowhere. In September, the Times revealed that Marshall sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills during his medical career. In 81 cases, patients were arrested after missing court dates.
Some of those bills were as small as $101. Wages and bank accounts were garnished. Many cases dragged on for years as collection attorneys kept renewing them, with interest piling up the whole time.
No Other Doctor Came Close
Marshall’s defense was that this was normal. He called his practices “very common.”
The Kansas City Star checked. It reviewed records for roughly 150 medical practices across Kansas. Marshall’s 18% rate was by far the highest. The Star found no other provider charging a specified rate above 12%.
Marshall’s own former lawyer told the Star it was Marshall’s office that decided how much interest to charge.
What the Suit Claims
The filing lists four causes of action: usury, unjust enrichment from keeping the excess interest, breach of good faith for collecting it without disclosure, and breach of fiduciary duty to his own patients.
It says many patients had no insurance, or plans with deductibles that left them owing big balances. Some had to choose between medical bills and groceries.
To get around the statute of limitations, the suit argues the clock was paused because the practice hid the problem. Patients only learned the rates may have been illegal from news reports this fall, it says.
The Senate Race
Kansas hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1932. Marshall was supposed to cruise. Instead, polls show a toss-up against Hamilton, a Methodist minister from Johnson County.
Earlier this week, 750 Kansas medical professionals signed a letter raising concerns about Marshall’s debt collection. He now sits on the Senate committees that write health care policy, including Finance and HELP.
Marshall’s Response
Marshall declined to comment on the lawsuit and referred questions to his communications team, which did not respond Thursday night. When the Times story broke, he dismissed it as election-year politics, saying it treated a rural doctor keeping the hospital’s lights on as a scandal. His lawyers also sent Hamilton a cease-and-desist letter over an ad about the issue.
The Bottom Line
A Republican senator who writes health care law sued hundreds of his own patients, got dozens of them arrested, and now stands accused of charging mothers interest above the legal limit. He calls it common. The records show no other Kansas practice came close. Kansas voters get the final word on Tuesday.
Sources: Kansas Reflector (Dale Hogg), via KMUW and The Iola Register; The New York Times, via MS NOW (Steve Benen); The Kansas City Star; KWCH; UPI.