HB565/SB514, sponsored by Del. Lorig Charkoudian & Sen. Brian Feldman, curb some of the worst practices of hospitals pursuing working families for medical debt. This legislation will require Maryland hospitals to provide an annual report each year detailing the debts they are pursuing through collections and lawsuits, extend the timeline to apply for free or reduced-cost care, require hospitals to refund patients who were pursued for collection and should have received free-care, bans wage garnishment for patients who qualify for free or reduced cost care, bans liens on a patient’s home for medical debt, establishes a workgroup to develop income-based repayment plans for all patients with unaffordable medical debt with monthly payments of no more than 5% of their gross monthly wages, and creates a moratorium on all lawsuits until hospitals have adopted and implemented an income-based repayment plan. This legislation is the first in the country to adopt many of these provisions and in other areas has passed the strongest protections in the country. The Medical Debt Protection Act extends critically needed protections to the more than 927,000 Maryland families that qualify for free or reduced cost care.
