Update 10/11/2024:
In late September, a new California Medical Debt Reporting bill was released that aims to block creditors and collection agencies from sharing medical debt with credit reporting agencies (CRAs) with the passage of California SB 1061.
The California Medical Debt Reporting bill, which was introduced in February, will go into effect in January 2025. While it does stop most medical debt from being shared with CRAs, there is one caveat. Patients who pay their hospital bills using a medical credit card or medical specialty loans won’t see that debt removed from their credit report.
The California Assembly also passed a bill that was signed by Newsom in late September. California AB 2297 expands current state law that protects a patient’s home from debt collectors by banning hospitals from using liens on all real property owned by Californians who earn less than 400% of the federal poverty level.
As the California Medical Debt Reporting landscape continues to change, Americollect works to stay on top of new laws and share that information with you. If you have questions about early out, bad debt collections or healthcare call center services contact our Ridiculously Nice sales team today.
Update 4/30/2024:
California’s government wants to stop medical debt credit reporting.
California is the latest state that is looking to stop healthcare providers from credit reporting medical debt, taking away a valuable tool providers use to recover their revenue.
California Senate Bill 1061 contains several proposals that would impact healthcare providers, including:
- Healthcare providers should not provide information regarding a patient’s medical debt to a credit reporting agency.
- Healthcare providers should include a provision in any contract entered into with a collection agency that prohibits the reporting of any information regarding a patient’s medical debt to a consumer credit reporting agency.
- Credit reporting agencies should not accept, store, or disclose any information concerning a medical debt.
The California medical debt reporting bill, which was introduced back in February, was reviewed by the California Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing on April 2.
If the California medical debt reporting bill advances and becomes law, California would join New York and Colorado as states with medical debt laws on the books.
We will continue to monitor California medical debt reporting and update you as new information becomes available. For any inquiries in the meantime, please contact our Ridiculously Nice Sales team at the button below!
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