An advocacy group in New York that has been actively seeking to reform medical debt collection in the state has issued a report calling for “guardrails” to protect patients from “extraordinary” collection efforts while they are being screened for eligibility for financial assistance programs, while also allowing patients to apply for financial assistance at any time during the collection process.
A copy of the report, “An Ounce of Prevention: Reforming the Hospital Financial Assistance Law Could Save Pounds of Patient Debt” from Community Service Society can be accessed by clicking here. The report is part of the group’s lobbying efforts to pass the Ounce of Prevention Act — S1366/A6027 — which has been introduced in the New York legislature. That bill would create a common financial assistance application for all hospitals to use while also modernizing eligibility rules.
The number of lawsuits filed by hospitals demonstrates that the facilities are not properly screening patients to determine if they are eligible for financial assistance, according to the group.
“The Ounce of Prevention Act is what we need to address New York’s medical debt crisis,” said David R. Jones, CSS’s president and chief executive. “Providing fairer and more effective financial assistance to low-income patients is the right thing – and the logical thing — to do.”
The report recommends that no extraordinary collection practices be allowed until 180 days have passed since the first bill is sent to a patient. Providers would also be required to notify patients 30 days in advance of filing a collection lawsuit, and all collection actions would have to be reversed if the patient is found to be eligible for financial assistance. Hospitals would also be required to have policies detailing how patients’ income and assets will be considered in collection actions, and its procedures for collecting debts.
