With hours remaining before Election Day, U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) released a video defending his medical practice’s debt collection methods, pushing back against competitive pressure from Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton.
The final stretch of the Kansas Senate race has centered heavily on Marshall’s past as an OB-GYN in Great Bend. A September report from The New York Times revealed that Marshall and his former practice, Heartland Regional OBGYN, filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients over unpaid medical bills. As the political fallout intensified, former patient Meischa Zimmerman filed a class-action lawsuit against the Republican senator in Barton County District Court, alleging a callous and predatory
debt collection scheme that charged an 18 percent annual interest rate, which exceeds the Kansas statutory limit of 15 percent as outlined in K.S.A 16-207.
The Closing Video Defense in Kansas
In a 60-second video circulating online over the final weekend of the campaign, Marshall addressed the mounting scrutiny head-on. The clip did not air on television or via digital advertising, according to data from AdImpact, but was shared widely by Republican accounts, including the Sedgwick County GOP chapter and a local conservative talk radio host.
Calling on voters to know the truth,
Marshall explained that keeping the doors open as the sole obstetrician in a largely rural region required strict financial measures. Marshall said in the video that his practice wrote off hundreds of bills monthly and provided free care to one-fifth of his patients. So we occasionally handed accounts over to collection agencies.
The senator also directly addressed allegations regarding patient arrests. Hamilton’s campaign ads, drawing from the Times investigation, highlighted that patients faced arrest in 81 cases after missing court dates tied to Marshall’s lawsuits. My involvement in any patient’s account ended the minute it was turned over to an outside agency,
Marshall stated. I never had anyone arrested, not once, and Adam Hamilton knows it.
Prior to the release of the video, Marshall’s campaign issued a cease-and-desist letter to Hamilton concerning an ad featuring Zimmerman. The campaign pointed out that Zimmerman was arrested not simply for a missed medical payment, but for repeatedly failing to appear in court.
The Legal Battle Over Usurious Interest Rates
The class-action lawsuit brought by Zimmerman focuses tightly on the financial terms enforced during her 2009 treatment. Zimmerman was sued by Marshall’s practice for a $3,596 bill for the delivery of her child, which accumulated an 18 percent annual interest rate. According to the complaint filed by local counsel Kent Roth alongside Boston attorneys Edward F. Haber and Ian J. McLoughlin, those debt collection efforts resulted in Zimmerman being arrested on three separate occasions.
An analysis by The Kansas City Star of roughly 150 medical practices across the state found that while patient lawsuits are not entirely uncommon, Marshall’s 18 percent interest rate was the highest among all reviewed providers, with no other clinics charging above 12 percent.
The lawsuit asserts four distinct causes of action: common law usury, statutory violations of interest caps, unjust enrichment from retaining illegal interest, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and breach of fiduciary duty. Local professionals also voiced concern; earlier in the week, 750 medical professionals in Kansas signed an open letter criticizing the senator’s historical billing practices.
The Political Aftermath as Voting Begins
John Whitmer, chair of the Sedgwick County Republican Party, defended the collection process while explaining his decision to amplify the senator’s closing video online. You don’t pay your bills, you get sent to collection,
Whitmer said. If you don’t make an arrangement with your collection agency, you get a court date. If you don’t make it to your court date, you go to jail.
Neither Marshall nor his campaign staff immediately responded to subsequent requests for comment regarding the specifics of the new class-action filing, leaving the debate over his private medical career to unfold entirely in the final hours before election results decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
