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Patients, advocates push for stronger hospital financial‑assistance rules to curb medical debt
Summary
Public commenters, community groups and nonprofit organizations urged the Public Health Committee to pass SB 1192 to standardize hospital financial‑assistance (charity care), expand eligibility, require clearer notices to patients and increase transparency to prevent medical debt and downstream harms to families and communities.
A broad coalition of patient advocates, community organizers, nonprofit policy groups and impacted residents told the Public Health Committee Feb. 3 that Connecticut should expand and strengthen hospital financial‑assistance policies to reduce medical debt, improve access and avert collections and bankruptcy.
Speakers described personal experiences with surprise bills and the stress of dealing with collections — including cases where patients or family members waited months for hospital financial assistance to be processed or could not access applications in languages or formats they needed. Several nonprofit and advocacy witnesses urged the committee to adopt SB 1192 and to add technical amendments to broaden…
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