After watching medical debt collection laws pass in a number of states this year, including Nevada and Maryland, the accounts receivable management industry might want to pay attention to what is now going on in Arizona, as a ballot initiative has been started to get a “Predatory Debt Collection Practices Act” passed in the state.
The initiative is being pushed by a group called Healthcare Rising Arizona. The group released a video last month detailing the law it wants to get enacted. More than one-in-six Arizonans have a past-due medical debt, according to the video. The video describes how it wants to prevent debt collectors from destroying lives and protecting additional property and wages from being garnished while also limiting the amount of interest that can be charged on unpaid medical debts.
The website for the group does not appear to have an actual draft copy of the bill it wants to get enacted available for review.
In a guest column published online yesterday, Robin Burgeson, one of the group’s supporters and a retired nurse, outlined Healthcare Rising Arizona’s cause and pushed for contributions and contributors. “Medical debt can be devastating, and that’s why at Healthcare Rising Arizona, we are working to pass the Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act,” she wrote. “Once we gather the signatures to put it on the ballot, Arizonans can vote to limit the interest that debt collectors can charge you for medical debt, and protect homes and cars from seizure. No Arizona family should be bankrupted by the cost of care.”
The industry is dealing with the fallout
