Talk Justice: Episode 87

Medical Debt Suits Plague Courts and Patients—Is There Another Way?

Guests from Kansas and Tennessee discuss the growth of medical debt lawsuits, their impact on patients, and efforts to mitigate these suits on Talk Justice. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on this issue in Kansas in an article, “In This Kansas Courtroom, the Hospital Dominates the Docket.” A hospital sued 400 of the 9,000 people living in Pratt County over a period of less than a year. Meanwhile, a Tennessee pilot program gives patients a better option through online dispute resolution.

Featured Guests

Matt Keenan graduated from KU law school in 1981 and following that, had a judicial clerkship for the Hon. James K. Logan on the 10^th Circuit court of appeals. Then he joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon in August, 1985 where he worked for 37 years in the medical device division as an equity partner. In that time, he served as chair of the firm’s pro bono committee and was on the Board of Legal Aid of Western Missouri.

In August, 2019, the U.S. Senate confirmed him to the Board of ��˶��, the umbrella organization to legal aid organizations around the country, including KLS.

In December 2022, Matt resigned the LSC board and his firm to become the Executive Director of Kansas Legal Services.

Dana Schmidt is a 2002 graduate of Regent University School of Law. She has practiced law for over 20 years. She began her career as a front-line litigation attorney at the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) in 2003. When she left DCS in 2011, she was serving as a supervising attorney and represented DCS in judicial and administrative hearings cross the state. From 2011 to 2013, she served as IV-D attorney and project manager for the 20th Judicial District of Tennessee. She was directly responsible for the case management of approximately 45,000 child support cases. Upon completion of the IV-D contract, she was recruited by Judge Sheila Calloway to manage the Metro-Davidson County Juvenile Court Parentage Division. While serving as program manager for the division from 2015 to 2022, she expanded the division’s parental assistance program which became known as the Parental Assistance Court (PAC) program.

A main component of the program was mediation services for unmarried and non-custodial parents. Ms. Schmidt worked to coordinate these services for child support, visitation and custody cases filed with the Court. In 2022, Ms. Schmidt was appointed as the program manager for mediation and grants by the Tennessee Supreme Court. She currently manages the Court’s Rule 31 listed mediator program as well as multiple grants that provide funding for mediation services across the state of Tennessee. She is married to Joseph Schmidt, she has three sons and one wonderful mini-schnauzer named Charles (Charlie) Baxter. She loves to travel, listen to true crime podcasts and cheer on the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team.

Host

Ronald S. Flagg was appointed President of the ��˶�� effective February 20, 2020, and previously served as Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel since 2013. He previously practiced commercial and administrative litigation at Sidley Austin LLP for 31 years, 27 years as a partner. He chaired the firm’s Committee on Pro Bono and Public Interest Law for more than a decade.

Flagg served as president of the District of Columbia Bar in 2010-2011 and currently serves as Chair of the Bar’s Pro Bono Task Force. He presently also chairs the board of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. He has also served as Chair of the District of Columbia Bar Pro Bono Committee, Chair of the Board of the AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly, as a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, on LSC’s Pro Bono Task Force, and as a member of the Board of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, the Board of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Foundation, and the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission.

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