On March 20, 2024, the Office of Washington Attorney General (WA AG) Bob Ferguson announced that it obtained a judgment against a debt collection agency in the State of Washington King County Superior Court. This judgment represents the final resolution of a charity care lawsuit filed by the WA AG in February 2022 against 14 different hospitals and two debt collectors alleged to have engaged in practices that kept patients from accessing financial aid.
The court found that the debt collector violated Washington’s Consumer Protection Act and Collection Agency Act by withholding debt collection rights disclosures in nearly 83,000 collection notices, including disclosures that consumers had the right to request the original or redacted account number assigned to the debt, the date of last payment, and an itemized statement, or that consumers had the right to apply for financial aid or “charity care” from the hospital. The court found that by unlawfully collecting payment without providing information about consumers’ medical debt rights, patients who were likely eligible for financial assistance were barred from learning about their options and were instead sent to collections.
Under the judgment, the debt collector must pay a $10 penalty per violation, for a total of $827,290. The Attorney General’s Office will also be reimbursed for its costs in bringing the case.