The Attorney General of Colorado, flanked by members of the state legislature, consumers, and other consumer advocates, yesterday held a news conference in support of their proposed bill that would cap the interest rate on medical debt, establish requirements on medical debt payment plans, and make violations of surprise or balance billing laws a deceptive trade practice, among other provisions. The news conference was in advance of a hearing that is scheduled for Thursday, February 23 to discuss the bill before the state Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee.
A copy of the proposed legislation, SB23-093, can be accessed by clicking here.
Six of the nine members of the committee are Democrats, which gives the bill a good chance of being advanced out of committee and into the legislature for its consideration.
Among the provisions of the bill are:
- Capping the medical debt interest rate at 3%
- Pausing collections on medical debt as patients appeal their coverage and prohibiting reporting the debt to a consumer reporting agency until a certain amount of time after an individual fails to fulfill the terms of a payment plan
- Requiring medical debt creditors or debt collectors to verify total debt owed upon request by a patient and to provide a copy of a payment plan
- Requiring healthcare providers or healthcare facilities to provide, upon request, an estimate of the total cost of medical services to a person who intends to self-pay for the service
- Reinstating the attorney general’s authority to protect consumers from deceptive trade practices related to billing practices, surprise billing, and balance billing whether they seek in or out-of-network care
If you are interested in participating in the hearing you can sign by clicking here. If you would like to submit written comments to the members of the Health and Human Services Committee in advance of the hearing, you can do so by contacting Chairperson Rhonda Field, Vice Chair Joann Ginal, Janet Buckner, Lisa Cutter (the sponsor of SB23-093) , Sonya Jaquez Lewis, Kyle Mullica, Janice Rich, Jim Smallwood, and Perry Will.
If you would like more information on the bill and what you can do to help, contact Makyla Moody
