This Republican senator’s medical practice had 81 people arrested over unpaid bills: report

Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall filed debt-collection lawsuits against more than 700 former patients during his career as an obstetrician-gynecologist, leading to the arrest of 81 people for missed court appearances, according to a new report. Marshall, who is running for reelection this fall, practiced medicine for more than 25 years before winning a seat in Congress in 2016. According to a New York Times analysis of Kansas court records, the collection actions occurred in cases brought under Marshall’s name or through Heartland Regional OBGYN, a practice he owned or co-owned from 1998 to 2019.

The collection efforts included bank account garnishments, wage garnishments and an 18 percent annual interest rate written into patient contracts. In response to detailed questions from The New York Times, Marshall spokeswoman Payton Fuller defended the practice's operations. Fuller added that Marshall provided care regardless of a patient’s financial situation, and that his former hospital “provided millions in uncompensated care” and “used the exact same billing and outside collection procedures as every other business or hospital in Kansas.” “Sixty days before an election, The New York Times has decided that a rural doctor keeping the hospital’s lights on is some kind of scandal.

Kansans know better,” Fuller told the publication. The Independent has contacted Marshall’s office for comment. Lawsuits reviewed by The New York Times involved outstanding balances ranging from $101 to several thousand dollars, primarily in rural Barton County.

The newspaper interviewed eight affected patients, including some who lacked insurance and others facing out-of-pocket balances after insurance coverage. Meischa Zimmerman told the outlet she was arrested three times — in 2011, 2013 and 2016 — over an unpaid $3,596 bill stemming from a 2009 delivery. During her first arrest, she was eight months pregnant and at home with her 2-year-old child.

Marshall sued her five months later. In another instance, Joe Vasquez, 68, said that he and his wife were arrested over Easter weekend in 2007 regarding an unpaid $4,561 bill from an emergency procedure three years prior. Vasquez was on disability and his wife worked at a manufacturing plant at the time.

The couple spent two days in custody before their son borrowed funds for bond. Vasquez added that he had recently undergone surgery and had fresh stitches when officers arrived. Court records show Marshall’s firm formally released the judgment against the Vasquezes in 2015.