BS BULLETIN:

• Sen. Roger Marshall is pushing back against a report that his former medical practice sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills.
• Court records reviewed by The New York Times showed 81 patients were arrested after missing court dates.
• Marshall called the story a Democratic “hit job” — while telling Fox News he hadn’t read the article.

Sen. Roger Marshall has a few things to say about a bombshell report involving his former medical practice.

Just don’t ask him whether he’s read it.

The Kansas Republican blasted a New York Times investigation detailing hundreds of lawsuits against former patients as a political “hit job” during a new interview with Fox News Digital.

“I think that Kansans look at a story like this and realize it’s from something like the National Enquirer, that this is totally a hit job by left media, an article paid for by Chuck Schumer,” Marshall said.

The Times investigation, published Sept. 8, was based on an analysis of Kansas court records.

It found that Marshall or Heartland Regional OBGYN, the medical practice he owned or co-owned, filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients over unpaid medical bills during his career as an obstetrician-gynecologist.

Patients were arrested in 81 of those cases after missing court appearances, according to the records reviewed by the Times. Marshall’s lawyers also sought warrants in another 13 cases in which the newspaper could not determine whether arrests occurred.

Some of the bills were remarkably small. The balances ranged from $101 to several thousand dollars, and the practice routinely charged an 18% annual interest rate on unpaid balances, according to the Times. Collection efforts also included garnishing wages and bank accounts.

Over the weekend, Sen. Marshall addressed our @nytimes reporting finding that he sued hundreds of patients for outstanding medical debts.

Sen. Marshall said this was a “common business practice” and that he waited a year before sending cases to litigation.

I have spoken with… pic.twitter.com/bcTAVitkBr

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) September 14, 2026

Marshall strongly disputes the implication that he was personally sending patients to jail.

“I would never want anyone to be arrested because of money that they owe myself or the hospital,” he told Fox.

Marshall said his practice followed standard collection procedures and that once a delinquent account was handed over for collection, he had no involvement in subsequent decisions.

“These were professional companies that did the collection processes,” Marshall said.

His former attorney, Steven Johnson, provided some additional context to the Times. Johnson said Marshall was not personally involved in individual decisions to seek warrants, arrests or garnishments and allowed his law firm to determine what steps were necessary to collect unpaid debts. But Johnson also said Marshall set the 18% interest rate contained in the contracts patients signed.

Court records reviewed by the Times show Marshall’s attorneys repeatedly requested arrest warrants after patients failed to appear in court. One former patient told the Times she was arrested three times in connection with an unpaid $3,596 bill from the delivery of her child.

Meischa Zimmerman said she was eight months pregnant and home with her 2-year-old daughter during the first arrest. Her debt eventually grew to more than $7,000 with interest, she said. Another couple described being arrested over Easter weekend in 2007 after missing a court appearance involving an unpaid $4,561 medical bill.

Marshall argues those examples don’t represent the full picture of his decades practicing medicine in rural Kansas. He told Fox that he accepted Medicaid patients and routinely provided care regardless of people’s ability to pay. Marshall said patients who communicated with his office and made even minimal payments could avoid collections.

“If a person’s making a payment of $5 a month, that’s fine,” he said.

The controversy comes as Marshall seeks reelection against Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor.

“Shame on you!” chant breaks out as Roger Marshall makes excuses for his medical debt collection practices experts called “extreme” and “unbelievably aggressive.” pic.twitter.com/8ppWspekXo

— Adam Hamilton (@Hamilton4Kansas) September 12, 2026

Hamilton’s campaign is using the medical-debt allegations against Marshall, while Vice President JD Vance defended the senator at a campaign event last week after a protester interrupted him by shouting about the lawsuits.

Marshall says the timing of the story — weeks before the election — is evidence that politics are driving it. And then, during his Fox interview, he offered one more assessment of the Times investigation: “Look, I’m not even gonna give The New York Times the honor of me reading their article.”

Marshall nevertheless said he believes its characterization of what happened is wrong.

“I trust our judges a lot more than what they’re describing there,” he said. “There had to be something else going on.”

 
(Video: Fox News Digital)

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

• Fox News — Marshall alleges Schumer behind “hit job” report on former patients
• New York Times — A doctor sued 700 patients for debts; 81 were arrested. Now he’s a senator
• Washington Post — Marshall’s challenger criticizes him over patient lawsuits
• Medical Economics — Marshall’s obstetrics practice sued more than 700 patients