Overview

• New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill into law that bans hospitals and healthcare providers from reporting medical debt to credit agencies.
• The law also prohibits credit agencies from collecting information about or reporting medical debt.
• New York is the second state after Colorado to enact such a law, and a similar nationwide measure is being considered by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• The law will not apply to medical debt that is charged to a credit card, unless the card was issued specifically for health services, and it doesn't apply to out-of-state healthcare providers.
• More than 740,000 New Yorkers had unpaid medical debt owed to collection agencies on their credit reports as of February 2022, according to a study by the Urban Institute.