United States HR 6470: Medical Debt Relief Act of 2020

Bill Text

I
116TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. R. 6470
To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to institute a 1-year waiting period
before medical debt will be reported on a consumer’s credit report and
to remove paid-off and settled medical debts from credit reports that
have been fully paid or settled, to amend the Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act to provide a timetable for verification of medical debt
and to increase the efficiency of credit markets with more perfect infor-
mation, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 7, 2020
Ms. PORTER (for herself, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. SEAN PATRICK
MALONEY of New York, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Ms. NORTON, Mrs.
NAPOLITANO, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. CLAY, Ms. BARRAGA ́N, Ms. HAALAND, Ms.
ESCOBAR, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. RUSH, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ,
Mr. DOGGETT, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Mr. BLU-
MENAUER, Mr. KILMER, Mr. CORREA, Mr. POCAN, Ms. SA ́NCHEZ, Mr.
NADLER, Mr. SOTO, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. VAN DREW, Mr. BROWN of
Maryland, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. RYAN, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. TAKANO,
Mr. SERRANO, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CA ́RDENAS, Ms. MENG,
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Ms. OMAR, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mr.
LYNCH, Ms. SCANLON, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. JOHNSON
of Georgia, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. MALINOWSKI, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr.
LOWENTHAL, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. LEVIN of California, Mr.
DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. COHEN, Ms. ADAMS, Mr.
ROUDA, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. THOMPSON of Mis-
sissippi, Mr. HARDER of California, Mr. MCEACHIN, Ms. SLOTKIN, Mr.
KENNEDY, and Ms. CRAIG) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to institute a 1-
year waiting period before medical debt will be reported
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

2
•HR 6470 IH
on a consumer’s credit report and to remove paid-off
and settled medical debts from credit reports that have
been fully paid or settled, to amend the Fair Debt Collec-
tion Practices Act to provide a timetable for verification
of medical debt and to increase the efficiency of credit
markets with more perfect information, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Medical Debt Relief 4
Act of 2020’’. 5
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT. 6
(a) MEDICAL DEBT DEFINED.—Section 603 of the 7
Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a) is amended 8
by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(bb) MEDICAL DEBT.—The term ‘medical debt’ 10
means a debt described in section 604(g)(1)(C).’’. 11
(b) EXCLUSION FOR PAID OR SETTLED MEDICAL 12
DEBT.—Section 605(a) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act 13
(15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)) is amended by adding at the end 14
the following: 15
‘‘(9) Any information relating to a medical debt if 16
the date on which the debt was placed for collection, 17
charged to profit or loss, or subjected to any similar action 18
antedates the report by less than 1 year. 19
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

3
•HR 6470 IH
‘‘(10) Any information relating to a fully paid or set-1
tled medical debt that had been characterized as delin-2
quent, charged off, or in collection which, from the date 3
of payment or settlement, antedates the report by more 4
than 45 days.’’. 5
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION 6
PRACTICES ACT. 7
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 809 of the Fair Debt Col-8
lection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692g) is amended by 9
adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(f) ADDITIONAL NOTICE REQUIREMENTS FOR MED-11
ICAL DEBT.— 12
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 13
‘‘(A) CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY.— 14
The term ‘consumer reporting agency’ has the 15
meaning given the term in section 603(f) of the 16
Fair Credit Reporting Act. 17
‘‘(B) MEDICAL DEBT.—The term ‘medical 18
debt’ means a debt arising from the receipt of 19
medical services, products, or devices. 20
‘‘(2) NOTICE ABOUT CREDIT REPORTING.—Be-21
fore furnishing information regarding a medical debt 22
of a consumer to a consumer reporting agency, the 23
person furnishing the information shall send a state-24
ment to the consumer that includes the following: 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

4
•HR 6470 IH
‘‘(A) A notification that the medical debt 1
may not be reported to a consumer reporting 2
agency until the end of the 1-year period begin-3
ning on the date on which the person sends the 4
statement. 5
‘‘(B) The specific date that is the end of 6
the 1-year period beginning on the date on 7
which the person sends the s