Both houses in the Florida legislature this week have approved a bill that places limits on how healthcare debts can be collected while also setting a three-year limit on collecting unpaid medical debts. The bill is part of a package of six pieces of legislation and it passed unanimously in both the state House and Senate this week.
What It Does: The bill shortens the window to collect on unpaid medical debts for services rendered by a facility licensed to operate in the state to three years, from five. The bill also sets a definition for “extraordinary collection action” to include:
- Selling the debt to a third party
- Reporting information about the individual to a credit reporting agency
- Deferring or denying or requiring payment before providing medically necessary care because the individual has an outstanding debt for previously provided care covered under the facility’s financial assistance policy
- Actions that require a legal or judicial process, such as placing a lien on a property or seizing funds from an individual’s bank account, or filing a collection lawsuit against the individual
Facilities are prohibited from engaging in extraordinary collection actions until it has made reasonable efforts to determine whether the individual is eligible under the facility’s financial assistance program, before the individual has been presented with an itemized statement, and if the patient is negotiating in good faith to pay the bill. Facilities are also required to send a notice to individuals, at least 30 days in advance, that a collection action is about to comment unless the patient takes some kind of action.
