II 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2149 

To exclude from consumer credit reports medical debt that has been in 

collection and has been fully paid or settled, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 1, 2012 

Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. BROWN of Ohio, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. SCHUMER, and Mr. HARKIN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To exclude from consumer credit reports medical debt that 

has been in collection and has been fully paid or settled, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Medical Debt Respon5 sibility Act of 2012’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•S 2149 IS

1 (1) medical debt is unique, and Americans do 

2 not choose when accidents happen or when illness 

3 strikes; 

4 (2) medical debt collection issues affect both in5 sured and uninsured consumers; 

6 (3) according to credit evaluators, medical debt 

7 collections are more likely to be in dispute, inconsist8 ently reported, and of questionable value in pre9 dicting future payment performance because it is 

10 atypical and nonpredictive; 

11 (4) nevertheless, medical debt that has been 

12 completely paid off or settled can significantly dam13 age the credit score of a consumer for years; 

14 (5) as a result, consumers may be denied credit 

15 or pay higher interest rates when buying a home or 

16 obtaining a credit card; 

17 (6) healthcare providers are increasingly turn18 ing to outside collection agencies to help secure pay19 ment from patients, coming at the expense of the 

20 consumer, because medical debts are not typically 

21 reported unless they become assigned to collections; 

22 (7) in fact, medical bills account for more than 

23 half of all non-credit related collection actions re24 ported to consumer credit reporting agencies; 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•S 2149 IS

1 (8) the issue of medical debt affects millions of 

2 consumers; 

3 (9) according to the Commonwealth Fund, med4 ical bill problems or accrued medical debt affects 

5 roughly 73,000,000 working-age adults in America; 

6 and 

7 (10) in 2010, 30,000,000 working-age Amer8 ican adults were contacted by a collection agency for 

9 unpaid medical bills. 

10 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ex11 clude from consumer credit reports medical debt that had 

12 been characterized as debt in collection for credit reporting 

13 purposes and has been fully paid or settled. 

14 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT. 

15 (a) MEDICAL DEBT DEFINED.—Section 603 of the 

16 Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a) is amended 

17 by adding at the end the following: 

18 ‘‘(z) MEDICAL DEBT.—The term ‘medical debt’ 

19 means a debt described in section 604(g)(1)(C).’’. 

20 (b) EXCLUSION FOR PAID OR SETTLED MEDICAL

21 DEBT.—Section 605(a) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act 

22 (15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)) is amended by adding at the end 

23 the following: 

24 ‘‘(7) Any information related to a fully paid or 

25 settled medical debt that had been characterized as 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•S 2149 IS

1 delinquent, charged off, or in collection which, from 

2 the date of payment or settlement, antedates the re3 port by more than 45 days.’’. 

Æ 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS