On April 8, 2024, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed HB 1370 into law, placing prohibitions on Virginia medical debt credit reporting. It prohibits “certain medical care facilities, certain health care professionals and emergency medical services agencies from reporting any portion of a medical debt, defined in the bill, to a consumer reporting agency.” The bill prohibits collection entities from reporting a collection or the attempts to collect a medical debt to a consumer reporting agency.
The definition of medical debt was updated to not include healthcare services paid for with a credit card. The legislation states: “Medical debt” means debt arising from health care services, including products, devices, durable medical equipment, and prescription drugs, and from the provision of transportation to receive health care services. “Medical debt” does not include debt charged to a credit card but does include an open-end or closed-end extension of credit made by a financial institution to a borrower that may be used by the borrower solely for the purpose of the purchase of health care services.
The Virginia medical debt credit reporting bill will take effect on July 1, 2024.
The Statute of Limitations bill, HB 34, was sent back to the legislature with amendments before Governor Youngkin signed the bill on April 17, 2024. Americollect previously covered the bill that will also take effect on July 1, 2024. This bill means that the statute of limitations on collecting medical debt must happen within three years, unless the contract with a hospital or healthcare provider is for a payment plan that allows for a longer period of time for the collection of the medical debt.
As your trusted source for revenue cycle industry news, we at Americollect will continue to monitor for further Virginia medical debt credit reporting information stemming from HB 1370. If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the button below!
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