I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2086 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 2, 2011 

Mr. SHULER (for himself, Mr. MANZULLO, Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ, and Mr. HALL) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for 

a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 

consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

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 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 


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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 a consumer’s credit score for years. 

14 (5) As a result, consumers can be denied credit 

15 or pay higher interest rates when buying a home or 

16 obtaining credit. 

17 (6) Healthcare providers are increasingly turn18 ing to outside collection agencies to help secure pay19 ment from patients and this comes at the expense of 

20 the 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 collection actions reported to consumer 

24 credit reporting agencies. 

25 (8) The issue of medical debt affects millions. 


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1 (9) According to the Commonwealth Fund, 

2 medical bill problems or accrued medical debt affects 

3 73,000,000 working-age adults in America. 

4 (10) For 2010, 30,000,000 working-age Amer5 ican adults were contacted by a collection agency for 

6 unpaid medical bills. 

7 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ex8 clude from consumer credit reports medical debt that had 

9 been characterized as delinquent, charged off, or debt in 

10 collection for credit reporting purposes and has been fully 

11 paid or settled. 

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

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

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

15 by adding at the end the following new paragraph: 

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

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

18 (b) EXCLUSION FOR PAID OR SETTLED MEDICAL

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

20 (15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)) is amended by adding at the end 

21 the following new paragraph: 

22 ‘‘(7) Any information related to a single fully 

23 paid or settled medical debt in an amount of $2,500 

24 or less that had been characterized as delinquent, 

25 charged off, or in collection which, from the date of 


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1 payment or settlement, antedates the report by more 

2 than 45 days.’’. 

3 SEC. 4. PAYGO BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 

4 The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 

5 complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 

6 shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 

7 titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 

8 Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 

9 by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, pro10 vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 

11 vote on passage. 

Æ 


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