Why a financial regulator is going after health care debt

[Jilly_in_VA]

When President Barack Obama signed legislation in 2010 to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he said the new agency had one priority: "looking out for people, not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses."

Since then, the CFPB has done its share of policing mortgage brokers, student loan companies, and banks. But as the U.S. health care system turns tens of millions of Americans into debtors, this financial watchdog is increasingly working to protect beleaguered patients, adding hospitals, nursing homes, and patient financing companies to the list of institutions that regulators are probing.

In the past two years, the CFPB has penalized medical debt collectors, issued stern warnings to health care providers and lenders that target patients, and published reams of reports on how the health care system is undermining the financial security of Americans.

In its most ambitious move to date, the agency is developing rules to bar medical debt from consumer credit reports, a sweeping change that could make it easier for Americans burdened by medical debt to rent a home, buy a car, even get a job. Those rules are expected to be unveiled later this year.

"Everywhere we travel, we hear about individuals who are just trying to get by when it comes to medical bills," said Rohit Chopra, the director of the CFPB whom President Joe Biden tapped to head the watchdog agency in 2021.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/01/1234998635/why-a-financial-regulator-is-going-after-health-care-debt

And that "debt" might not even be accurate! Case in point--UVA double-billed me for something I'd already paid, then sold my already-paid bill to a collection agency!

[elleng]

1. *the agency is developing rules to bar medical debt from consumer credit reports,

a sweeping change that could make it easier for Americans burdened by medical debt to rent a home, buy a car, even get a job. Those rules are expected to be unveiled later this year.'