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Senate Health & Welfare reviews medical-debt bill; lenders raise concerns about broad definition
Summary
The Senate Health & Welfare Committee took testimony on S.27, a bill to allow a nonprofit to forgive certain medical debt and to set notice/reporting requirements. Supporters said it could relieve Vermonters while hospital and banking representatives urged narrowing the bill’s definition of “medical debt” and raised implementation questions.
The Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee heard extended testimony Feb. 18 on S.27, legislation that would allow a nonprofit to forgive medical debt and create reporting and notice procedures aimed at giving relief to Vermonters with unpaid hospital and provider bills.
Supporters, including the Office of the Health Care Advocate and hospital representatives, told the committee the proposal could provide meaningful relief to people saddled by hospital bills and urged the committee to consider related state actions to draw down federal funds. Critics including the Vermont Bankers Association warned the bill’s current wording could sweep in consumer debt not directly owed to medical providers.
Mike Fisher, the state’s health care advocate, described ACT 119 of 2022 — the patient financial assistance and medical debt protections law that took effect July 1, 2022 — as groundwork that standardized hospitals’ financial assistance eligibility and discount levels. “Act 119 … prohibited the sale of medical debt by large health care facilities and set…
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