Medical Debt Protection: New Collection Rules and Transparency
This act introduces new rules for medical debt collection to protect patients. It limits aggressive collection actions, ensures access to debt information, and sets interest rate caps. The goal is to help citizens manage medical debt and increase transparency in the healthcare system.
Key points
Prohibits medical debt collection while a health insurance appeal is pending.
Healthcare entities must assess patient eligibility for financial assistance before starting collection.
Medical debt collection can only begin 180 days after the initial bill is sent.
Patients will receive easy-to-understand itemized statements and payment receipts.
Interest rates on medical debt are capped at 5% annually or a lower federal rate plus 2%.
A public database will be established to track medical debt collection practices and demographic data.
Expired
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