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Many jails and prisons charge various fees, such as medical co-pays, emergency fees, prescription co-pays, medical device fees, and fees for necessary hygiene items. This issue brief discusses the problems caused by such fees and proposes state solutions.
Read More about What States Can Do About Medical Debt in Jails and Prisons
State advocates seeking to remove medical debts from credit reports face a new landscape that threatens to undo their work. State laws and bills to ban medical debt credit reporting may need to be modified to protect against a now-hostile federal administration that may attempt to preempt them. This policy brief provides two suggestions to…
Medicaid plays a crucial role in ensuring that millions of working-class, aging, and disabled individuals can receive necessary long-term services and supports (LTSS) in their own homes and communities. Federal policy, however, forces state Medicaid programs to pursue recovery of LTSS costs accrued at age 55 and older from the estates of deceased beneficiaries, often…
Read More about What States Can Do to Help Consumers: Medicaid Estate Recovery
Medical bills often end up on credit cards, including medical credit cards and other medical lending products. These products are marketed specifically to pay for medical expenses and are typically offered directly by health care providers, particularly dentists. Patients used cards or loans with deferred interest terms to pay for almost $23 billion in healthcare…
Read More about What States Can Do: Medical Credit Cards and Other Medical Lending Products
CFPB Resources: Community Catalyst Resources: NCLC Resources: Other Resources:
Read More about Selected Resources About Medical Lending Products
The rule will help people with unjustly lowered credit scores by lessening medical debt’s impacts and relieving pressure to pay wrongful bills The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) medical debt credit reporting rule will remove medical bills from credit reports sent to lenders by companies like Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. The rule also prohibits lenders…
Read More about CFPB’s Medical Debt Credit Reporting Rule Is a Lifeline to 15M People
This tip sheet for advocates was created to accompany a webinar hosted by the National Center on Law & Elder Rights on nursing home debt collection against residents, family members, and other third parties. While most older adults rely on Medicare and Medicaid to help pay for their care, these programs often come with significant…
Read More about NCLER Tip Sheet: Nursing Home Debt Collection: Issues and Defense
Medical bills often arrive unexpectedly and send many families into a financial tailspin. Unanticipated out-of-network medical bills, which often happen during emergencies, are referred to as “surprise bills” and can reach hundreds or thousands of dollars. This issue brief provides a general overview of older patients’ rights against surprise medical bills, focusing on protections provided…
Read More about Protecting Older Adults from Surprise Medical Bills
Medical debt harms tens of millions of consumers, with nearly 1 in 6 Americans contacted by a debt collector over a healthcare bill, and 21% of residents in mainly nonwhite zip codes with at least one medical debt in collection on their credit reports.
Read More about What States Can Do to Help Consumers: Medical Debt
This fact sheet illustrates the needs for a strong rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers from abusive debt collection tactics, especially those carried out by collectors of medical debt―the leading source of debt borne by most consumers.
Brief outlining NCLC's medical debt priorities for the first 100 days of the Biden Administration
Read More about COVID-19 Medical Debt: First 100 Day Priorities for the Biden Administration