How One Mother Became a Voice for People Sued for Medical Debt
A woman in Blaine, Minnesota, struggled with debt while seeking care for her son—what she did next ultimately helped changed laws in her state
Yolanda Pierson’s son, Wayland Jr., was diagnosed with a rare eye disease at age five, and in 2017 she took him to a hospital specializing in eye care. Over three years and after eight surgeries and 21 office visits, the family amassed a significant amount of debt. Subsequent referrals of that debt to collections, lawsuits, and disruptions of care all led to Pierson advocating for families struggling with medical debt—and supporting passage of landmark legislation in Minnesota, with reforms that share the same overarching recommendations as those from The Pew Charitable Trusts.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Can you tell us what happened when you found out you were being sued for medical debt?
A: When you open the mail and see that the hospital is suing you, it gives you anxiety. It makes you feel uneasy about the care that you’re receiving. It makes you question, Can I afford to go to the doctor, versus, How do I get the best care?
Q: Did you have legal representation when you were sued?
A: I called Legal Aid, and they advised me to settle or create a payment plan with the collection agency. But even with a payment plan in place with the collection agency, we couldn’t get care from the hospital because we still owed the hospital money. That’s what forced me to put bills on credit cards—so that my son could continue seeing his doctor.
Q: What was it like to testify in front of the state legislature?
A: I was nervous. I’m sharing my personal financial business—everyone will know that I’m being sued and that we couldn’t pay our medical bills.
But as I was testifying and sharing my story, I saw that people were really shocked by some of the things that happened to us. We were already on a payment plan, earnestly trying to clear our balance, but we were still sued. And then we started to wonder—why did we owe all this money? My son only had office visits in 2020. That’s when we realized that the hospital processed routine office visits as surgeries. So even if the doctor would just dilate his eyes, it was billed as a surgery. All of that went toward our deductible and coinsurance, so our bills piled up.
Every time we tried to call the hospital, the appointment line would send us to the billing department. The billing department then sent us to the collection agency. Our doctor didn’t even know that we were having these issues—he thought we were just missing appointments. But when he learned what happened, he started advocating with us, too.
I shared all of that during my testimony, and as I talked to people after, I realized that there are a lot of people who are facing the same challenges.
After I testified, the hospital reviewed its billing practices and adjusted about $6,200 because of incorrectly billing regular office visits as surgeries. We got some of that amount in refunds, and some was sent to our insurance company. But I wonder how much more they really could owe us, because we now know we would have qualified for charity care. We’ve paid down some of our debt—and we’re still paying for my son’s medical care.
Q: How do you think policymakers should use peoples’ experiences when creating new laws?
A: I think it’s important for our lawmakers to represent their constituents and understand what they’re facing. If you think about how the cost of living continues to rise and debt rises along with it, how could they make their constituents’ lives better, especially those who can’t advocate for themselves? Or how can they help patients pay back these medical debts they owe without disrupting access to care, as this only makes a health condition worse?
Q: What are some misconceptions about people being sued for medical debt?
A: If I tell someone that I have $25,000 in credit card debt, they assume that I’m buying fancy clothes or cars, or that I’m being frivolous with my money. But that’s not the case. For us, 80% of our credit card debt today is for medical bills that we’ve had to put on credit cards because we didn’t have the cash available.
No one is asking, Is your family healthy? They just look at your credit score or the amount of debt you owe. And for people who’ve had liens put on their houses, you just feel defeated and overcome with grief from debt. That’s a hard feeling when you’re trying to get through a health battle.
Q: What encouraged you to testify in front of the legislature?
A: I think about the people who may not have the opportunity to advocate for themselves. My grandmother used to say all the time, “What's expected of you?” I spent countless hours researching and fighting for my son’s care, and maybe some people don’t have the time or capacity to do that. And so it’s been really rewarding for me to see laws change because I advocated for my son’s health and in turn advocated for the next person’s health.
Q: How is your son doing now?
A: He’s doing great and has made remarkable progress. Most kids his age with Coats disease lose their eye. Today, although he doesn’t have central vision in the affected eye, it still functions normally.
Q: What are the lessons you’ve learned from this experience?
A: It’s been a rewarding feeling to see laws passed. For a while, when you keep getting these bills and things aren’t changing, you start to question yourself about the choices that you’re making. And as a parent especially, you question—is this the right thing to do?
I thought my experience was just a personal family issue, so we kept it to ourselves and didn’t share or ask for help. In hindsight, I wish we could’ve shouted from the rooftop louder, earlier.
People should pay attention to the care they receive and how they’re being billed. There are so many people today who have debt in collections where the bills were inaccurate.
This has been very educational for me—learning how the lady from Blaine, Minnesota, can make things happen.
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