A bipartisan package moving through the Michigan Legislature would create a new Medical Debt Protection Act and channel violations of it into the enforcement machinery of the state’s consumer protection statute, a structure with direct consequences for healthcare providers, medical debt buyers, and the agencies that collect on their behalf.
The mechanism sits in Senate Bill 701, which amends the Michigan Consumer Protection Act to list a violation of the proposed Medical Debt Protection Act among the unfair, unconscionable, or deceptive practices the act prohibits. That designation matters. It opens violations to attorney general enforcement, private class actions, and civil fines of up to $25,000 for persistent and knowing conduct. SB 701 is tied to Senate Bill 702, the substantive Medical Debt Protection Act, so neither takes effect without the other.
The substantive bill reaches conduct familiar to ARM operators. It would cap interest and late fees on medical debt at 3% per year, bar interest or late fees until 90 days after the final invoice due date, and prohibit extraordinary collection actions including liens and home foreclosures used to recover medical debt. Wage garnishment would be off-limits for patients who qualify for financial assistance. Providers could not defer, deny, or demand payment for emergency care from patients carrying medical debt.
The package also restructures the upstream relationship. Companion measures Senate Bills 449, 450, and 451 would codify hospital financial assistance programs, add reporting requirements, and prohibit medical debt from appearing on consumer credit reports. The financial assistance provisions would require sliding-scale discounts of up to 100% for uninsured patients at or below 350% of the federal poverty guidelines, extending an obligation that already applies to nonprofit hospitals under federal law.
The Michigan Senate passed all five bills on March 11. Sponsors Sarah Anthony and Jonathan Lindsey have framed the effort as keeping a single medical emergency from becoming a permanent financial burden, pointing to roughly 700,000 Michiganders carrying medical debt. The measures are now advancing in the House, where the House Health Policy Committee has approved the package and sent it toward a floor vote alongside companion House legislation. Lindsey has separately pursued price transparency legislation that would condition collection on hospitals’ compliance with federal cost disclosure rules.
