One chamber of the Virginia legislature has passed a bill that would reduce the statute of limitations on medical debt to three years while also expanding the definition of medical debt and the types of facilities that are subject to the law.
The Who: The bill was introduced by state Delegate Nadarius Clark, a Democrat. The bill would apply to anyone with medical debt, which would be defined as “a debt arising directly from the receipt of a healthcare service and originally owed directly to a healthcare service provider.”
- The bill passed in the state House last week by a vote of 49 to 46. It now moves to the state Senate for its consideration.
The What: The bill reduces the statute of limitations to three years from five, starting from the due date applicable to the final invoice for a healthcare service. There is one exception — if the contract with a hospital or healthcare provider is for a payment plan that allows for a longer period of time for the collection of debt by the hospital or healthcare provider.
- Reducing the statute of limitations would effectively lower the amount of time that creditors have to file collection lawsuits to recover unpaid medical debts in Virginia. Currently, Virginia has a five year statute of limitations on medical debt related to services provided in public hospitals.
- A previous form of the bill was vetoed back in 2022 by Gov. Glenn Youngkin because there was some confusion that the bill could have been read as applying to other forms of debt rather than medical debt.
