IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Oct. 10, 2019 – Frank and Belinda VanderSloot announced a second donation of $500,000 today to a consumer protection fund that defends Idaho citizens from overly aggressive medical debt collectors and attorneys who appear to use unscrupulous tactics.

The couple introduced this legal defense fund called Idaho Medical Debt on April 25, 2019, before funding it with their first $500,000 donation. The VanderSloots specifically established this fund for individuals who have been charged excessive attorney fees in collections. Today’s donation brings the VanderSloots’ personal contributions to $1 million.

In addition to providing funding to defend Idahoans from the ruthless tactics used by medical debt collectors, the VanderSloots will call upon the Idaho legislature to pass meaningful legislation that protects Idaho’s citizens from a variety of unsavory practices related to medical debt. To complement these important legislative efforts, they anticipate donating additional money to lead a strong consumer advocacy and education campaign throughout the state.

Reassuring the healthcare community, Frank VanderSloot emphasizes this fund will not prevent doctors or hospitals from being paid in full.

“We want to make clear that doctors and hospitals deserve to be paid for their services,” Frank said. “Doctors and hospitals have the right and the need to collect for services rendered. We will not be helping people avoid paying legitimate bills. But we are defending people from unscrupulous, unreasonable, or unnecessary attorney fees.”

Over the last five months, attorneys working with the legal defense fund have not slowed down. The fund has been contacted by more than 483 individuals and provided hundreds of one-on-one consultations. Currently, Idaho Medical Debt, funded by the VanderSloots, has agreed to legally defend 140 families from unscrupulous collection tactics and unreasonable attorney fees.

Due to the large number of individuals seeking help from the fund, the VanderSloots have announced a second donation of an additional $500,000 to the fund. They are committed to this effort and will continue to provide a legal defense for those who are being treated unfairly by unscrupulous collection agencies and their attorneys.

Nearly all of these cases involve Medical Recovery Services (MRS), an Idaho Falls-based collection agency specializing in medical debt. Notably, MRS employs the firm of Smith, Driscoll & Associates (SDA), which is owned and operated by the same people who own MRS. In other words, it appears that they essentially employ themselves to do the legal work for their own collection agency.

After hearing hundreds of heart-wrenching stories, Idaho Medical Debt attorneys have noted patterns of behavior that are reported repeatedly by victims of their aggressive collection tactics. Idaho Medical Debt believes some of these activities are illegal.

• MRS telling people it is not necessary for them to show up in court, then obtaining default judgments against these people;
• MRS telling people not to get an attorney because it will end up costing them more if they try to defend themselves;
• MRS refusing to provide documentation as to what the medical debt was, in other words not being able to document there was an actual bill in the first place.
• MRS making misstatements regarding the nature of the litigation, including calling complaints that have been filed “judgments”;
• MRS making misstatements regarding the court, including that the court requires strict deadlines for repayment when the court has no such deadlines;
• MRS refusing to back down from a lawsuit where the medical provider made a mistake (e.g., sending a bill by mistake) because SDA-MRS want to collect attorney fees;
• MRS collecting on discharged or already satisfied debts.
• MRS charging victims a fee every time they make a payment—resulting in a never-ending cycle of fees; and

Over the last few months, Frank and attorneys have been researching and drafting legislation that protects Idahoans from unscrupulous attorneys in the medical debt collection process. Frank plans on raising the issue with legislators next week and asking them to do the right thing for the citizens of Idaho.

The VanderSloots were inspired to create this new fund after MRS sought to collect over $6,000 in legal fees from one of Melaleuca’s employees based on a $294 medical expense.

After the employee’s disturbing case was reported in the media, hundreds of people came forward with similarly shocking stories about their experiences with MRS and its attorneys.

The VanderSloots made their decision after reading an investigative news series on EastIdahoNews.com that describes how SDA-MRS routinely balloons small debts into thousands of dollars by tacking on exorbitant attorney fees and questionable expenses that other debt collectors do not.

Anyone with medical bills who is treated unfairly by any collection company from southeast Idaho is a candidate for this protection. They can confidentially call Idaho Medical Debt at 208-534-2208, email [email protected] or post publicly on the Idaho Medical Debt Facebook page to seek assistance.