Minnesota’s Big Changes Regarding Medical Debt
MOCA is partnering with Cancer Legal Care (CLC) throughout 2024 to help our ovarian cancer survivors and families gain insight into relevant legal issues. This month, CLC is breaking down Minnesota’s new Debt Fairness Act.
During the 2023-2024 legislative session, Minnesota passed the Debt Fairness Act. Governor Walz signed the Act into l
aw on May 21, 2024. The Debt Fairness Act is a big step toward important medical debt reform and providing relief for countless Minnesota families dealing with medical debt. The law will go into effect this year on October 1, 2024—here’s how it deals with medical debt:
- A patient’s medical debt will no longer automatically transfer to their spouse.
- Medical providers will no longer be allowed to withhold medically necessary care from a patient due to the patient’s unpaid medical bills.
- Medical providers and health plans will be required to follow a process allowing patients to dispute billing errors.
- Medical providers will no longer be allowed to report medical debt to credit bureaus.
- Patients will have strong new protections against unethical debt collection practices for medical debt.
- Medical providers will be required to publish their medical debt collection practices.
Visit Cancer Legal Care for more details about these specific provisions. Cancer Legal Care is proud to have supported the passage of the Debt Fairness Act on behalf of our clients and others in the Minnesota cancer community because we believe that medical debt has no place in burdening anyone’s cancer journey. We are thankful for the partnership between local community advocates and elected leaders in making this first step toward medical debt reform; and we are energized to see what progress is yet to come.
