The day the proposed rule on medical debt was announced, ABC News, American Banker and other news outlets highlighted comments from ACA leaders in their coverage.
06/12/2024 2:20 P.M.
5 minute read
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on consumer reporting under the Fair Credit Reporting Act on Tuesday.
ACA International has been diligently building its advocacy plan on this proposal for several months. Now that the proposed rule is released, our advocacy and communications team is fully mobilized, disseminating information about the proposed rule and executing key elements of our advocacy plan.
Of course, there’s been a lot of media coverage from other outlets as well, many of which have featured quotes from ACA CEO Scott Purcell and ACA Treasurer Jennifer Whipple. Here is a roundup of some of those articles.
Read ACA’s full statement to the press here.
American Banker: ‘White House, CFPB Seek to Ban Medical Debt from Credit Reports’
American Banker reporter Kate Berry reached out to ACA for input from Whipple, who previously talked with Berry about the bureau’s process to develop the rule starting last year. “The bureau is ignoring the overwhelming evidence provided during the Small Business Review Panel meetings that medical debt does have a predictive value and that their efforts will harm medical providers, consumers, and patients,” said Jennifer Whipple, president of Collection Bureau Service Inc. in Missoula, Mont., who served on the small business panel last year. “These actions are telling the medical community that they don’t deserve the same options in receiving payment for their services as other professions. It also risks patients having to pay a significant portion of or all of their bill in advance so their medical provider can continue to offer affordable access to care.”
Fox Business: ‘Biden Admin to Ban Medical Debt from Credit Reports, Loan Decisions: Reports’
A report from Fox Business covers the CFPB’s process and research to develop the rule while noting unintended consequences and missing data from its studies.
“While the proposed rule may initially benefit consumers, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals has warned patients could be worse off if they are incentivized to stop paying their medical bills.
‘The proposal, which includes, among other things, a directive to remove all medical debt from credit reports, would result in negative unintended consequences for medical providers and lenders throughout the country,” CEO Scott Purcell said in November when ACA filed a response to CFPB’s proposed rulemaking.”
The report also includes economic analysis results from Andrew Rodrigo Nigrinis, Ph.D., “who showed the bureau has not studied whether health care providers will refuse to provide credit and cut consumers off from health services, or raise prices on everyone to compensate for those that don’t pay their bills.”
ABC News: ‘In Sweeping change, Biden Administration to Ban Medical Debt from Credit Reports’
“Ge Bai, a professor who studies accounting health policy at Johns Hopkins University, predicted that hospitals will have to make up for that loss in other ways. More stringent payment efforts, like requiring payment before patients receive medical care, could leave low-income patients worse off.
‘I think in the short run, it will be great news for patients, and probably we’ll see patient advocacy groups pushing it. However, I think in the long-run, when the long-term negative effects emerge, probably we’re going to see more pushback,’” Bai said.
ABC quoted ACA, echoing Bai’s concerns.
‘The CFPB’s proposal will have a broad negative impact on businesses, health care providers, patients and consumers because by suppressing information about a consumer’s debt, this will increase the cost of medical care and force more upfront payments. The rule, if finalized, would fundamentally alter the U.S. credit-based economy as it is today in terms of reduced consequences for not paying your bills, which in turn will reduce access to credit and health care for those that need it most,’ ACA CEO Scott Purcell said in a statement to ABC News after the rule was proposed Tuesday.”
The Center Square: ‘Feds Want to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Scores in Sweeping Change’
“The proposal would stop credit reporting companies from sharing medical debts with lenders and prohibit lenders from making lending decisions based on medical information. The proposed rule is part of the CFPB’s efforts to address the burden of medical debt and coercive credit reporting practices,” Brett Rowland reports.
Rowland quoted Purcell and ACA’s concerns about the proposal in the report.
“The CFPB’s proposal will have a broad negative impact on businesses, health care providers, patients and consumers because by suppressing information about a consumer’s debt, this will increase the cost of medical care and force more upfront payments,” Purcell said in a statement. “The rule, if finalized, would fundamentally alter the U.S. credit-based economy as it is today in terms of reduced consequences for not paying your bills, which in turn will reduce access to credit and health care for those that need it most.”
Public Comments Open
Comments on the NPRM are due Aug. 12. ACA is requesting an extension to the comment period of 60 days.
In the meantime, it is critical that the CFPB and lawmakers in Congress hear directly from the stakeholders that will be impacted, both immediately and continually throughout the rulemaking process, ACA reported when the rule dropped.
ACA encourages members to reach out to their health care provider clients to share how they can contact the CFPB and members of Congress about their work with patients and consumers and the potential impact of these proposals.
ACA will publish resources for grassroots advocacy to share with your provider clients on the impacts of the NPRM as well as tools to reach out to your members of Congress and file comments with the CFPB, which will be available on the Advocacy Resource Center.
In light of the serious implications of this FCRA NPRM, watch for a series of member alerts as part of our outreach on steps you can take to positively impact the outcome of the final rule. Through this outreach, ACA is working to make grassroots advocacy easy for you and your clients, increasing the impact of those efforts.
Remember, subscribe to ACA Daily and Member Alerts under your My ACA profile when logged in to acainternational.org to receive updates on the ACA Huddle.