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A06275 Text:



 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                         6275--A
 
                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                      April 3, 2023
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced  by  M.  of  A. PAULIN, SEAWRIGHT, ARDILA, McDONALD, FORREST,
          SEPTIMO, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, SIMONE --  read  once  and  referred  to  the
          Committee  on Consumer Affairs and Protection -- committee discharged,
          bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended  and  recommitted  to  said
          committee

        AN  ACT  to amend the public health law and the general business law, in
          relation to prohibiting medical debt from being collected by a consum-
          er reporting agency or included in a consumer report
 
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
 
     1    Section  1.  Short  title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
     2  the "fair medical debt reporting act".
     3    § 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new article 49-A  to
     4  read as follows:
 
     5                                ARTICLE 49-A
     6                           MEDICAL DEBT REPORTING
     7  Section 4925. Definitions.
     8          4926. Medical   debt  reporting  prohibited  in  contracts  with
     9                  collection entities.
    10          4927. Enforcement.
    11    § 4925. Definitions. As used in  this  article,  the  following  terms
    12  shall have the following meanings:
    13    1.  "Medical  debt"  means  an  obligation  or alleged obligation of a
    14  consumer to pay any amount whatsoever related to the receipt  of  health
    15  care  services,  products, or devices provided to a person by a hospital
    16  licensed under article twenty-eight  of  this  chapter,  a  health  care
    17  professional  authorized  under  title  eight of the education law or an
    18  ambulance service  certified  under  article  thirty  of  this  chapter.
    19  Medical  debt  does not include debt charged to a credit card unless the
    20  credit card is issued under an open-ended  or  closed-end  plan  offered

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD09626-04-3

        A. 6275--A                          2
 
     1  specifically  for  the  payment  of  health  care services, products, or
     2  devices provided to a person.
     3    2. "Collection entity" means any individual, partnership, corporation,
     4  trust,  estate,  co-operative,  association,  government  or  government
     5  subdivision, agency or other entity that either purchases  medical  debt
     6  or collects medical debt on behalf of another entity.
     7    3.  "Consumer  reporting  agency"  shall have the same meaning as such
     8  term is defined in section three hundred eighty-a of the  general  busi-
     9  ness law.
    10    § 4926. Medical debt reporting prohibited in contracts with collection
    11  entities.  A  hospital licensed under article twenty-eight of this chap-
    12  ter, a health care professional authorized  under  title  eight  of  the
    13  education law, or an ambulance service certified under article thirty of
    14  this chapter:
    15    1.  shall  not  furnish  any  portion  of a medical debt to a consumer
    16  reporting agency; and
    17    2. shall include a provision in  any  contract  entered  into  with  a
    18  collection  entity  for  the purchase or collection of medical debt that
    19  prohibits the reporting of any portion of such medical debt to a consum-
    20  er reporting agency.
    21    § 4927. Enforcement. Any portion of a medical debt that  is  furnished
    22  to a consumer reporting agency shall be void.
    23    §  3. Section 380-a of the general business law is amended by adding a
    24  new subdivision (v) to read as follows:
    25    (v) The term "medical debt" means any obligation or alleged obligation
    26  of a consumer to pay any amount whatsoever related  to  the  receipt  of
    27  health  care  services,  products,  or  devices  provided  by a hospital
    28  licensed under article twenty-eight of the public health law,  a  health
    29  care  professional authorized under title eight of the education law, or
    30  an ambulance service certified under article thirty of the public health
    31  law.
    32    § 4. Subdivision (a) of section 380-j of the general business law,  as
    33  added by chapter 867 of the laws of 1977, is amended to read as follows:
    34    (a)  No consumer reporting agency shall report or maintain in the file
    35  on a consumer, information:
    36    (1) relative to an arrest or a criminal charge unless there has been a
    37  criminal conviction for such offense, or unless such charges  are  still
    38  pending,
    39    (2) relative to a consumer's race, religion, color, ancestry or ethnic
    40  origin, [or]
    41    (3) relative to a medical debt as defined in this statute; or
    42    (4) which it has reason to know is inaccurate.
    43    §  5. Subparagraphs (vii) and (viii) of paragraph 1 of subdivision (f)
    44  of section 380-j of the general business law, as added by chapter 867 of
    45  the laws of 1977, are amended to read as follows:
    46    (vii) information relating to past confinement in a mental institution
    47  where the date of last confinement antedates the  report  by  more  than
    48  seven years; [or]
    49    (viii)  information  relating to a medical debt regardless of the date
    50  it was incurred; or
    51    (ix) any other adverse information which antedates the report by  more
    52  than seven years.
    53    § 6. This act shall take effect immediately.
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