Hamilton calls Marshall medical debt video ‘desperate’

Kansas Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton called his opponent’s attempt to explain away his past lawsuits against indebted patients “desperate.”

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), an obstetrician, recorded a video disputing claims that he sued more than 700 former patients for overdue medical bills, including some for debts as low as $101. Hamilton said the video misled voters over his former medical practice’s debt-collection efforts.

“It felt like to me that he was desperately trying to explain away something,” Hamilton told NewsNation’s Mills Hayes on Monday.

The New York Times reported in September that Marshall filed the suits against more than 700 patients over the span of his medical career in an effort to collect on overdue medical bills. Patients were arrested in 81 cases after missing court appearances, according to records reviewed by the Times.

In a video recorded and produced by the senator without the help of his campaign, Marshall said he occasionally handed overdue bills to a collection agency to “keep the lights on.”

“My involvement in any patient’s account ended the minute it was turned over to an outside agency,” Marshall said . “I never had anyone arrested.”

The Times reported that about half of the lawsuits were filed in the senator’s name and that his lawyers repeatedly requested arrest warrants to be issued in the cases, but Marshall holds that he regularly worked without pay to help his patients.

“When I practiced as a small town OB doc, often serving as the only OB in the middle of 40,000 people, my wife and I decided to take care of everyone regardless of their ability to pay,” Marshall claimed in the video . “We wrote off hundreds of bills monthly and one in every five patients received free care.”

Hamilton claimed Marshall’s personal attorney filed the lawsuits and that the Senator had a say in how aggressively they were pursued.

“The reality is, if you actually check the facts, he’s not telling the truth,” Hamilton said.