A group of 10 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-Ohio], the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, have sent a letter to the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau encouraging the regulator to move forward with its proposed rule that would remove medical debts from consumers’ credit reports. The Senators asked the CFPB to “move forward quickly” with a concrete rulemaking and applauded the Bureau’s “broader focus” on the issue.
Among the items that the senators want to see in the CFPB’s rulemaking are:
- Eliminate reporting of all medical debt in consumers’ credit reports
- Eliminate deferred interest in medical credit products
- Prohibit and aggressively enforce against reasonably unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices
On top of that, the senators asked the CFPB to identify other practices that could be considered to be unfair, deceptive, or abusive and issue policy directive to protect those patients. That could include, for example, requiring debt collectors to fully inform patients about eligibility for financial assistance programs that could help alleviate medical debt and consider it an unfair and deceptive practice if that doesn’t happen.
Not only should it be pursuing rulemaking, but the CFPB should also be pursuing enforcement, both on its own and working with state attorneys general and other regulators. “Predatory companies that take advantage of patients who need care and treatment will not stop their egregious behavior without strong enforcement and rules,” the group wrote. “The CFPB should also partner with other federal agencies to ensure that hospitals are providing to patients any financial assistance that is legally required before trying to collect on medical debt. Hospitals not only have a medical responsibility towards patients, but a financial one as well.”
