Add Art 2 Title 2-G 245 & 246, Pub Health L; amd 601, Tax L
Establishes a three-year pilot hospital medical debt relief program to provide hospital medical debt relief to eligible residents of the state utilizing a not-for-profit organization to identify, acquire and cancel medical debt of such eligible residents directly from health care providers in the state.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6096--B
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 3, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. REYES, DE LOS SANTOS -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Health -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted
to the Committee on Health in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2
-- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended
and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public health law and the tax law, in relation to
establishing a pilot hospital medical debt relief program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "hospital medical debt relief act".
3 § 2. Article 2 of the public health law is amended by adding a new
4 title 2-G to read as follows:
5 TITLE 2-G
6 HOSPITAL MEDICAL DEBT RELIEF PROGRAM
7 Section 245. Definitions.
8 246. Hospital medical debt relief program.
9 § 245. Definitions. As used in this article, the following terms shall
10 have the following meanings:
11 1. "Eligible resident" means an individual that meets the following
12 conditions:
13 (a) is a resident of the state;
14 (b) has a household income at or below four hundred percent of the
15 federal poverty guidelines or has hospital-based medical debt equal to
16 five percent or more of the individual's household income; and
17 (c) has had hospital medical debt relieved under this program.
18 2. "General hospital medical debt" means an obligation or an alleged
19 obligation of an eligible resident to pay any amount whatsoever related
20 to the receipt of health care services, products, or devices provided to
21 a person by a general hospital licensed under article twenty-eight of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04741-08-3
A. 6096--B 2
1 the public health law or a health care professional authorized under
2 title eight of the education law who practices within a hospital, wheth-
3 er or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment.
4 § 246. Hospital medical debt relief program. 1. The commissioner,
5 subject to general fund appropriations for this purpose, shall establish
6 a three-year pilot program to provide hospital medical debt relief to
7 eligible residents in the state.
8 2. Pursuant to sections one hundred twelve and one hundred sixty-three
9 of the state finance law, the commissioner shall contract with a not-
10 for-profit organization to identify and cancel the hospital medical debt
11 owed by eligible residents to hospitals and their contracted providers
12 located within the state, to the extent possible. Such not-for-profit
13 organization shall enter into agreements with general hospitals in the
14 state to identify eligible residents utilizing patient data provided by
15 such participating hospitals including, demographic information, resi-
16 dents' zip codes, insurance status and payer, dates of service,
17 balances still owed, and other information necessary to identify an
18 eligible resident. The not-for-profit organization shall retire such
19 eligible residents' hospital medical debt by acquiring such debt through
20 purchase or receipt as a donation from a participating general hospital
21 and then cancelling such debt. Any such purchase of hospital medical
22 debt shall be for an amount at or below the fair market value of such
23 debt. All data sharing shall comply with the provisions of the federal
24 health insurance portability and accountability act and any other
25 applicable state or federal law.
26 3. To the extent possible, for general hospitals that have entered
27 into an agreement under the program, priority shall be given: (a) to
28 eligible residents whose debt is eighteen months or older; and/or (b)
29 who resides in the lowest-income zip codes.
30 4. The not-for-profit organization shall also notify each eligible
31 resident who has had a debt cancelled pursuant to the provisions of this
32 section that their specific hospital medical debt has been cancelled
33 and that the debt cancelation does not lead to income tax liabilities
34 for program recipients. Such notice shall include a copy of the hospi-
35 tal's financial assistance application and policy pursuant to section
36 twenty-eight hundred of this chapter.
37 5. Once a hospital medical debt has been cancelled, the participating
38 general hospital or their third party agent, that reported the hospital
39 medical debt to the credit reporting agencies, shall inform the credit
40 reporting agencies of such cancellation to ensure that the debt has been
41 removed from an eligible recipient's credit report.
42 6. The not-for-profit organization shall conduct an outreach program
43 to have discussions with general hospitals about the benefits of the
44 hospital medical debt relief program to patients, communities and to the
45 hospitals themselves. Such outreach shall first be initiated with
46 enhanced safety net hospitals as defined in section twenty-eight hundred
47 seven-c of this chapter.
48 7. The not-for-profit organization shall, in consultation with the
49 department report annually on the progress and success of the hospital
50 medical debt relief program established pursuant to this section to the
51 governor and the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the
52 assembly, the department, and the chair of the senate committee on
53 health and the chair of the assembly committee on health. Such report
54 shall be published and publicly available on the department's website.
55 Such report shall include but not be limited to:
A. 6096--B 3
1 (a) the amount of hospital medical debt purchased and discharged under
2 the program;
3 (b) the number of eligible residents who received relief under the
4 program;
5 (c) to the extent practicable the characteristics of the eligible
6 residents;
7 (d) the number of individual debts purchased;
8 (e) total number of eligible residents by zip code;
9 (f) the number of individual debts purchased by zip code;
10 (g) the number of individual debts canceled by county separated by the
11 federal poverty line as defined and annually revised by the United
12 States department of health and human services for a household of the
13 same size, as follows: (i) two hundred percent and below, (ii) above two
14 hundred percent up to three hundred percent, (iii) above three hundred
15 percent up to four hundred percent, (iv) above four hundred percent; and
16 (h) any other data or information requested by the department and that
17 can be included pursuant to applicable laws and regulations and within
18 budgeted resources.
19 8. The commissioner shall promulgate any rules and regulations neces-
20 sary for the implementation of this section.
21 § 3. Subsection (i) of section 601 of the tax law is relettered
22 subsection (j) and a new subsection (i) is added to read as follows:
23 (i) Hospital medical debt relief. Notwithstanding the provisions of
24 subsections (a), (b), (c) and (d) of this section and any other
25 provision of this article, for taxable years beginning after the effec-
26 tive date of this subsection, the income of an individual received
27 pursuant to the provisions of section two hundred forty-six of the
28 public health law in the form of debt cancelation shall be exempt from
29 tax under this article regardless of whether such income is subject to
30 federal income taxation.
31 § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
32 it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amend-
33 ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
34 tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
35 completed on or before such effective date.
