LA committee approves motion to let county publish hospital medical-debt and financial-assistance data

The Arts, Parks, Libraries and Community Enrichment Committee of the Los Angeles City Council voted 3-0 to approve a motion directing action to allow the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to collect and publish data and policies on hospital debt-collection and financial-assistance activities for hospitals operating in the city.

The motion, introduced by Council Member Hernandez and coauthored on the agenda as "Hernandez Palilla," was approved by a roll call that recorded Council Member Jurado, Council Member Hernandez and Council Member Nazarian voting yes. Committee documents identify the measure as item 9 on the agenda.

Why it matters: Los Angeles County public-health officials told the committee that medical debt is a widespread public-health and equity problem and that the proposed local reporting would create a clearer, city-level picture of hospital collection activity and of who receives financial assistance. Andy, a health-care policy lead at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said the county estimated in 2023 that about one in nine Los Angeles County adults carried burdensome medical debt totaling about $2.9 billion.

County officials told the committee the ordinance would not impose enforcement costs on the city. Jacob Kramer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said the county does not charge cities for enforcement of ordinances it administers for multiple jurisdictions, and that the county's public summaries would be HIPAA-compliant and would not include medical-condition details.

"This item will come at no cost to the city," Jacob Kramer said. "Cities are not charged for that." Andy said the data reported to the county would not include medical-condition information and that the county plans public summaries of financial-assistance access and debt-collection activity.

On data security and storage, county staff said the Department of Public Health will host the files on its secure servers and that the system uses industry-standard protections. Andy said the department uses the same secure reporting systems it employed for COVID-19 and other reportable conditions and that, to date, that reporting system has not experienced a compromise.

The committee did not specify next procedural steps for the motion during the recorded discussion. The motion text on the record asks for an enabling ordinance to authorize the county to collect and publish the described data in a manner consistent with the county's existing program.

Votes and immediate record: the roll call on the item recorded three ayes and the item was approved. No funding or new city obligations were indicated in the committee discussion.

Outgoing context: County officials emphasized that the initial reporting will be designed to protect privacy and produce public summaries that identify gaps in access to financial assistance under existing hospital rules, rather than to publish individual patient records.