Exempts credit card debt from the definition of medical debt unless the credit card is issued under an open-ended or closed-ended plan offered specifically for the payment of health care services, products, or devices provided to a person.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9438
IN ASSEMBLY
March 14, 2024
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Consumer Affairs and Protection
AN ACT to amend the general business law and the public health law, in
relation to the definition of medical debt
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision (v) of section 380-a of the general business
2 law, as added by chapter 727 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 (v) The term "medical debt" means any obligation or alleged obligation
5 of a consumer to pay any amount whatsoever related to the receipt of
6 health care services, products, or devices provided by a hospital
7 licensed under article twenty-eight of the public health law, a health
8 care professional authorized under title eight of the education law, or
9 an ambulance service certified under article thirty of the public health
10 law. Medical debt does not include debt charged to a credit card unless
11 the credit card is issued under an open-ended or closed-ended plan
12 offered specifically for the payment of health care services, products,
13 or devices provided to a person.
14 § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 4925 of the public health law, as added
15 by chapter 727 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as follows:
16 1. "Medical debt" means an obligation or alleged obligation of a
17 consumer to pay any amount whatsoever related to the receipt of health
18 care services, products, or devices provided to a person by a hospital
19 licensed under article twenty-eight of this chapter, a health care
20 professional authorized under title eight of the education law or an
21 ambulance service certified under article thirty of this chapter.
22 Medical debt does not include debt charged to a credit card unless the
23 credit card is issued under an open-ended or [closed-end] closed-ended
24 plan offered specifically for the payment of health care services,
25 products, or devices provided to a person.
26 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall be deemed to
27 have been in full force and effect on the same date and in the same
28 manner as chapter 727 of the laws of 2023 amending the public health law
29 and the general business law relating to prohibiting medical debt from
30 being collected by a consumer reporting agency or included in a consumer
31 report, takes effect.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13925-03-4
