and consumers about what medical debt is owed is a simple step in the right direction,” said Braun. A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that medical debt was a widespread issue impacting an estimated 41% of Americans — or about 100 million adults. The report also found that in their efforts to pay what was owed, adults report making “a number of sacrifices and enduring substantial financial consequences.” And those with lower incomes and people of color were more likely to report being contacted by collection agencies, being denied subsequent care, or changing their housing situation to pay down their medical debt. The Strengthening Consumer Protections and Medical Debt Transparency Act would require that: HHS creates a publicly available database of annual reporting from hospitals, freestanding facilities, and large provider practices with information about whether they use collection agents, the process for assigning debt to a collection agent, and the number of Extraordinary Collection Actions, as defined by the IRS, they have initiated. HHS will maintain a public list of any health care entity that does not submit the required information each year. Before an entity can send debt into collections, health care entities should ensure that all insurance coverage appeals have been resolved and determine whether the patient qualifies for assistance. Health care entities, or their contracted debt collection agencies, shall not enter into extraordinary collection until 180 days after an initial bill is sent and the debtor’s identity has been confirmed. Health care entities provide the patient with an itemized statement of the debt owed as well as detailed receipts of payments made within 30 days. A health care entity or its agent who fail to comply with changes under the Act is liable to the patient for actual damages and up to $1,000. In the case of a class action suit, damages are the amount each plaintiff could have recovered, not to exceed $2 million. If the patient is successful, then attorney’s fees and other costs also can be recovered. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issue a biennial report on medical debt and review the public database for its application to the CFPB’s risk supervision program. “Medical debt is different from all other forms of debt. Medical care is involuntary and not optional. Also, patients usually have no way of knowing the price before they buy. That’s why people who owe medical debt deserve the additional, common sense protections proposed in this bill, such as an itemized statement, or having the debt collector verify that there is no charity care or other aid program that could help the family. Families struggling with the physical and emotional toll of serious disease or injury deserve to be treated with basic fairness and dignity by medical debt collectors, and this bill goes a long way toward making that a reality in Connecticut and all over America,” said Ted Doolittle, Connecticut’s State Healthcare Advocate.