Tescha Hawley, a citizen of the Gros Ventre Tribe who lives on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana, is among the patients who say they were stuck with medical debt that the Indian Health Service should have paid. (Courtesy /Jessica Plance, KFF Health News)

Tescha Hawley learned that hospital bills from her son’s birth had been sent to debt collectors only when she checked her credit score while attending a home-buying class. The new…