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Patient billed about $230K for surgery after $1,300 estimate is protected by contract law, state supreme court says

May 25, 2022

Contract law protects a patient who was billed about $230,000 for surgery, despite being told that her cost after insurance would be about $1,300, the en banc Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week.

The state supreme court ruled that the patient, Lisa Melody French, didn’t have to pay the high charge because the price wasn’t disclosed in hospital service agreements that she signed, and those agreements didn’t incorporate the hospital’s internal database of charges.

Colorado Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Gabriel wrote the May 16 opinion.

French was responsible only for the reasonable value of the services that she received, with credit for the amount that her insurance paid, the state supreme court said.

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