Written by a parent, not a doctor. Nothing here is medical advice.

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Colorado program

Colorado's medical-debt rules

Colorado limits medical-debt interest and collection practices and protects many credit reports from medical debt.

What it is

Colorado limits medical-debt interest and collection practices and protects many credit reports from medical debt.

A confusing medical bill does not have to be treated as a settled amount. Colorado law provides a free itemized statement and pauses collection while that request is outstanding. Credit-report and appeal protections have separate limits.

Eligibility rules
  • These protections concern medical debt under Colorado law. The debt and collection activity must fall within the relevant provisions.
What you get
  • A free itemized medical-debt statement after a written request.
  • A collection pause until the statement is supplied.
  • A 3% annual interest cap and medical-debt credit-report protections.
What the help includes
  • A written itemized-statement request to a covered debt collector pauses collection until the required statement is supplied. It does not cancel the debt.
  • While an insurance appeal is pending, and for 63 days after, the collector cannot contact you unless you ask, report the debt, sue, or sell the debt, and must ask to delete anything already reported.
  • A hospital financial-assistance application has separate protections for covered extraordinary collection. An incomplete application has its own notice and completion rules; a complete application triggers review. These protections do not automatically stay an existing court case.
If you decide to apply
  1. Discuss the bill and any court papers with your social worker or a legal-help contact.
  2. If you choose to request the itemized statement, send the collector a written request and keep a dated copy.

Colorado Legal Services: 303-837-1313; Attorney General collector complaints: 720-508-6022 · Official page ↗

After you ask
  • The collector must provide the required statement before resuming covered collection. A timely written debt-validation dispute has a separate legal process and deadline.
  • Colorado Legal Services can screen requests for legal help at 303-837-1313. The Attorney General's Collection Agency Program accepts complaints at 720-508-6022 or car@coag.gov; it does not act as your lawyer.
Good to know

A phone request does not trigger the itemized-statement pause. The credit-report protection has a large-transaction exception.

Other details
  • Medical debt cannot be used against you on a credit report, except when you apply for a very large loan (over about $830,000). That protection is due to expire in July 2028.
  • Moving a medical bill to a credit card can change which protections apply. Your social worker can help compare hospital help before financing the bill.
  • An insurance appeal, hospital-assistance application and itemized-statement request protect against different actions. Your social worker can help identify the right process, while a legal adviser addresses existing court deadlines.
Official sources
Ask your social worker

“If a medical bill reaches collection, could these rules give us time to check it, and what would they leave unresolved? Could you help us decide how to respond without missing a deadline?”

Why I’m asking: I want to understand the bill before paying or agreeing to a collection arrangement.

More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules

Who does what

The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.

You

Put the request in writing and keep a copy.

Your social worker

The collector must stop until it provides the statement.

The care team

Nothing.

Who decides
The collector must comply; the state administrator sets the rules.
Ask the billing office
“I am requesting an itemised statement of this medical debt in writing, without charge. Please stop collection until you provide it.”

How to apply

First step: Write to the collector asking for an itemised statement of the debt.

  1. Write to the collector asking for an itemised statement; that pauses collection.
  2. If an insurance appeal is running, say so in the same letter.

Where it starts: Write to the collector asking for an itemised statement, and say an appeal is pending if one is.

What to gather

  • The bill and the account number
  • Any appeal reference from the insurer

How long: Collection stops until the collector provides the statement.

What a yes looks like

An itemised bill arrives and the calls stop meanwhile.

What a no looks like, and the next move

Keep the letter and the reply; the state's consumer-credit administrator enforces these rules.

Watch out

  • The credit-report protection is scheduled to end on July 1, 2028.
  • It does not cover reports for very large credit transactions.
  • Ask in writing. A telephone call does not trigger the pause.

If they say no, quote this: Colorado Revised Statutes 5-16-109.5: on written request and without fee, a collector must cease collection on a medical debt until it can provide an itemised statement.

The numbers and the rules

The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.

What it is worth

Medical debt kept off credit reports, interest capped at three percent a year, a free itemised bill that pauses collection.

  • $3/year — Maximum interest rate on medical debt
  • $63 — Look-back during which collector limits apply after an appeal was pending

Legal protection: A consumer-reporting agency may not report adverse medical-debt information, subject to a high-value credit exception · The maximum interest on medical debt is three percent a year · A written request for an itemised statement is free and stops collection until the statement is given · Collector restrictions apply while an insurance appeal is pending, or was pending in the previous 63 days

What it costs the family: Nothing.

The eligibility facts, as published

Debt type
Medical debt
Residency
Colorado

The trap: The free itemised statement is the lever people forget. A written request stops the collector until they can give you the statement, which buys time and often finds errors.

Where I read this

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