She was told surgery $1,337, not $229,112

When Lisa Melody French needed back surgery after a car accident, she went to a hospital near her home outside Denver, which reviewed her insurance information and told her she would be personally responsible for paying about $1,337.

But after the surgery, the hospital claimed that it had “misread” her insurance card and that she was, in fact, an out-of-network patient, court papers said. As a result, Centura Health, which operated the hospital, billed her $229,112.13. When she didn’t pay, Centura sued her.

French, 60, a clerk at a trucking company. eventually filed for bankruptcy. This past week, after a yearslong legal battle, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that French did not have to pay the nearly $230,000 for the spinal fusion surgery she underwent at St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster in 2014.

It said she would have to pay only $766.74, apparently reflecting the remainder of her balance set by a jury.