I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3421 

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 

JULY 30, 2009 

Ms. KILROY (for herself, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. MINNICK, Mr. PERRIELLO, Ms. 

SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. BACA, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. 

MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, and Mr. AL GREEN of Texas) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

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 Relief 

5 Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

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


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1 (1) Medical debt is unique because, unlike con2 sumer debt, Americans don’t get to choose when ac3 cidents happen or when their genetic traits will catch 

4 up to their health profile. 

5 (2) Medical debt collection issues affect both in6 sured and uninsured consumers. 

7 (3) According to credit evaluators, medical debt 

8 collections are more likely to be in dispute, inconsist9 ently reported, and of questionable value in pre10 dicting future payment performance because it is 

11 atypical and nonpredictive. 

12 (4) Nevertheless, medical debt that has been 

13 completely paid off or settled can significantly dam14 age a consumer’s credit score for years. 

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

16 or pay higher interest rates when buying a home or 

17 obtaining a credit card. 

18 (6) Healthcare providers are increasingly turn19 ing to outside collection agencies to help secure pay20 ment from patients and this comes at the expense of 

21 the consumer because medical debts are not typically 

22 reported unless they become assigned to collections. 

23 (7) In fact, medical bills account for more than 

24 half of all non-credit related collection actions re25 ported to consumer credit reporting agencies. 


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

2 (9) According to the Commonwealth Fund, 

3 medical bill problems or accrued medical debt affects 

4 roughly 72,000,000 working-age adults in American. 

5 (10) For 2007, 28,000,000 working-age Amer6 ican adults were contacted by a collection agency for 

7 unpaid medical bills. 

8 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ex9 clude from consumer credit reports medical debt that had 

10 been characterized as debt in collection for credit reporting 

11 purposes and has been fully 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 ‘‘(y) 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 fully paid or 

23 settled medical debt that had been characterized as 

24 debt in collection for credit reporting purposes, 


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1 which, from the date of payment or settlement, ante2 dates the report by more than 30 calendar days.’’. 

Æ 


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