ROGER MARSHALL: A GREEDY DOCTOR

SUING PATIENTS WITH UNPAID BILLS AS LOW AS $101

We expect Donald Trump’s inanities or lies -- calling for renaming New Mexico or claiming he was a hero of 9-11 when he wasn’t even there -- so the most infuriating story this week is about a doctor, now a Senator, suing more than 700 patients for unpaid bills and charging 18% interest rates.

This was Kansas’ Roger Marshall. The New York Times revealed that as an obstetrician in central Kansas he sued patients, garnished their wages, and had scores imprisoned. These were mostly relatively smallish amounts, as low as $101.

It was centered in Barton County which has higher than average poverty and uninsured rates. The Times and follow up stories in local papers quoted victims about brutally insensitive treatment.

Marshall, who is running for reelection, the Times reported, was making $780,000 in 2015 before being elected to the House. He has an estimated worth of between $3 million and $9.8 million. He has staunchly opposed the Affordable Health Care Act and supports the cuts in Medicaid enacted last year.

A small band of bad actors, like Marshall, offer an unfair picture of a profession I admire: doctors. My late Dad and my brother were great physicians devoted to their patients.

My father, who had a very successful pediatric practice in an affluent area, died over a half century ago. With an eye to selling the practice (unsuccessfully) we combed his records, discovering a few patients who weren’t charged, more paid discounted fares, and, when necessary, a payment plan was worked out. There was no record of any suits.

My Republican Dad would have been appalled by Roger Marshall.

My wife and I have had extensive experience with dozens of doctors. With one exception, they provided excellent medical care and were empathetic.

The American health care system, better than a few decades ago, remains a mess. But physicians are only a very small part of the problem, often more the afflicted.

Doctors are well compensated. The average pay is $386,000, some making millions. This underscores if anything they are undercompensated, most offering far more value to society than hedge fund executives or mediocre professional athletes.

Most are appreciated. A University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School study this year found primary care providers win overwhelming approval from the public. Top Trump health officials, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr and Mehmet Oz, who administers Medicare and Medicaid, both are underwater.

There are few disquieting trends. The Connecticut Mirror and KFF Health did an exhaustive study of health care legal actions in that state. Most of these cases now are being brought by doctors or physician groups rather than hospitals, a reversal of only a few years earlier.

It’s true that of over 25,000 licensed physicians and dentists in the state only about 400 filed lawsuits over unpaid bills. The trend, however, is notable.

With investors, like private equity, buying up medical groups, it might get worse. A subsidiary of Team Health, a Tennessee physicians’ firm owned by Blackstone, brought some 4,800 lawsuits against medical patients in Shelby County, TN. After news organizations revealed this practice, the company said it was halting any suits.

To be sure, taking legal action against deadbeat patients with sizeable debts is understandable.

Too often these are relatively small bills and before suits or sending people to jail, a system for stretched out repayment or dropping it is the better option.

In the Connecticut reporting, Allie Cass-Wilson, a nurse with an OB-GYN bill from years before, was not allowed to propose a payment schedule. The medical practice then blackballed her from future care.

In Kansas, Joe Vasquez owed $4,561 for an emergency hysterectomy his wife had several years earlier. He missed a court date and Marshall’s attack dogs pounced.

Although he was on disability the cops, under the orders of the Marshall team, arrested the couple in front of their grandchildren; they spent two nights in jail before getting a loan to pay bail. Eventually he worked out a repayment schedule over eight years which should have been the first option.

Kellie Clutts, a nurse, had a $129 charge for a postpartum visit after her daughter’s birth nine months earlier. Recently divorced with little money she asked to make partial payments. The Marshall team rejected that and garnished her bank account.

It’s up to the voters of Kansas to decide whether Sen. Marshall deserves reelection. And his many patients can judge his medical competence.

But when a millionaire files over 700 legal actions, charging usurious interest and sends scores of patients to jail, most for relatively small debts, that’s a character test.

Roger Marshall flunks.