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 Flor-
ida, 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Medical Debt Relief 
Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Medical debt is unique because, unlike con-
sumer debt, Americans don’t get to choose when ac-
cidents happen or when their genetic traits will catch 
up to their health profile. 
(2) Medical debt collection issues affect both in-
sured and uninsured consumers. 
(3) According to credit evaluators, medical debt 
collections are more likely to be in dispute, inconsist-
ently reported, and of questionable value in pre-
dicting future payment performance because it is 
atypical and nonpredictive. 
(4) Nevertheless, medical debt that has been 
completely paid off or settled can significantly dam-
age a consumer’s credit score for years. 
(5) As a result, consumers can be denied credit 
or pay higher interest rates when buying a home or 
obtaining a credit card. 
(6) Healthcare providers are increasingly turn-
ing to outside collection agencies to help secure pay-
ment from patients and this comes at the expense of 
the consumer because medical debts are not typically 
reported unless they become assigned to collections. 
(7) In fact, medical bills account for more than 
half of all non-credit related collection actions re-
ported to consumer credit reporting agencies. 
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(8) The issue of medical debt affects millions. 
(9) According to the Commonwealth Fund, 
medical bill problems or accrued medical debt affects 
roughly 72,000,000 working-age adults in American. 
(10) For 2007, 28,000,000 working-age Amer-
ican adults were contacted by a collection agency for 
unpaid medical bills. 
(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ex-
clude from consumer credit reports medical debt that had 
been characterized as debt in collection for credit reporting 
purposes and has been fully paid or settled. 
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT. 
(a) MEDICAL DEBT DEFINED.—Section 603 of the 
Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(y) MEDICAL DEBT.—The term ‘medical debt’ 
means a debt described in section 604(g)(1)(C).’’ 
(b) EXCLUSION FOR PAID OR SETTLED MEDICAL 
DEBT.—Section 605(a) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act 
(15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(7) Any information related to a fully paid or 
settled medical debt that had been characterized as 
debt in collection for credit reporting purposes, 
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which, from the date of payment or settlement, ante-
dates the report by more than 30 calendar days.’’. 
Æ 
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