The governor of Maryland last week signed HB 1020, the Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act into law, which makes it the latest state to enact a medical debt credit reporting law.
Why it matters:
HB 1020, effective October 1, 2025, restricts how medical debt can be handled by credit reporting agencies, healthcare providers, and debt collectors in Maryland.
Driving the news:
- Consumer reporting agencies will be prohibited from including information related to medical debt — including collection actions — in consumer reports.
- Agencies also cannot maintain any file on a consumer that includes information about their medical debt or associated collection activity, regardless of when the debt was incurred.
- Credit decisions cannot be based on any medical debt information included in a consumer report.
Details:
- “Medical debt” is broadly defined to include obligations related to health care services, products, devices, durable medical equipment, or prescription drugs.
- Medical bills that are not yet due — and even those that have already been paid — are still considered “medical debt” under the law.
- However, debts charged to a general credit card (except for health care-specific credit products) are excluded.
Additional restrictions:
- Health care facilities, health care practitioners, ambulance services, and their agents or assignees are prohibited from disclosing any portion of a consumer’s medical debt to a consumer reporting agency.
- Contracts between healthcare entities and collection companies must now include a provision banning disclosure of medical debts to consumer reporting agencies. Contracts that do not include this provision will be void and unenforceable.
Background:
- HB 1020 also amends existing Maryland health and commercial laws, reinforcing prior requirements for hospitals to provide oversight of debt collection practices.
- Hospitals must ensure they do not report adverse information to consumer reporting agencies or initiate civil actions against patients within 180 days of issuing an initial bill.
- By November 1, 2025, hospitals must instruct credit reporting agencies to delete adverse information related to patients when applicable, such as during ongoing insurance appeals or financial assistance reviews.
