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The federal Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is proposing to eliminate medical debt from most credit reports, stop companies from sharing debt information and bar lenders from making decisions based on medical data.
The proposed regulation brought "immediate cheers from consumer advocacy groups that have long pushed for change," Amy Lotven reports for Inside Health Policy. "CFPB believes the rule . . .would remove as much as $49 billion in debt from 15 million Americans and increase credit scores by an average 20 points."
The agency's research has found that medical debt "is not a good predictor of loan repayments," so it thinks the regulation would "improve underwriting, stop denials of loans to consumers who would repay, and lead to about 22,000 additional safe mortgages a year," Lotven writes.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the credit-reporting system is often inaccurate, but is used "to coerce patients into paying medical bills that they do not owe."
In 2003, Congress restricted lenders from using medical information about debts, but "agencies created a regulatory loophole that let creditors use such information in their decisions," Lotven reports. The proposed rule "would close the regulatory loophole from 2003 by establishing guardrails for credit-reporting companies and banning lenders from taking medical devices as collateral for a loan as well as from repossessing a device if the loan is not repaid."
Vice President Kamala Harris and Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said states should take similar action. David Kendall, senior fellow for health policy at Third Way, a centrist group that has produced several reports on debt, said the proposed rule is the latest in a series of federal and state actions “to fight the scourge of medical debt. They have been preventing medical debt by expanding coverage, funding medical debt abolishment, and ending junk insurance that can lead to medical debt.”
The agency's research has found that medical debt "is not a good predictor of loan repayments," so it thinks the regulation would "improve underwriting, stop denials of loans to consumers who would repay, and lead to about 22,000 additional safe mortgages a year," Lotven writes.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the credit-reporting system is often inaccurate, but is used "to coerce patients into paying medical bills that they do not owe."
In 2003, Congress restricted lenders from using medical information about debts, but "agencies created a regulatory loophole that let creditors use such information in their decisions," Lotven reports. The proposed rule "would close the regulatory loophole from 2003 by establishing guardrails for credit-reporting companies and banning lenders from taking medical devices as collateral for a loan as well as from repossessing a device if the loan is not repaid."
Vice President Kamala Harris and Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said states should take similar action. David Kendall, senior fellow for health policy at Third Way, a centrist group that has produced several reports on debt, said the proposed rule is the latest in a series of federal and state actions “to fight the scourge of medical debt. They have been preventing medical debt by expanding coverage, funding medical debt abolishment, and ending junk insurance that can lead to medical debt.”
from KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS https://ift.tt/nObicMW U.S. agency proposes rule to eliminate medical debt from most credit reports, saying it's an unreliable predictor of paymentHealthy Care
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