A BILL FOR AN ACT to amend the Indiana Code concerning trade regulation.

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Medical Debt Protection Act

This bill stops healthcare providers in Indiana from sharing medical debt information with credit agencies and requires credit agencies to remove such information from consumer reports.

What This Bill Does

• Stops health care providers in Indiana from sending any details about unpaid medical bills to credit reporting companies.
• Requires health care providers to include a clause in contracts with third-party bill collectors that bans sharing medical debt info with credit agencies.
• Forbids credit reporting companies from keeping records of new medical debts reported after June 30, 2026.
• Mandates that if someone asks for their medical debt information to be removed from their report, the agency must delete it within five business days.

Who It Names or Affects

• Health care providers in Indiana
• Credit reporting agencies
• People with unpaid medical bills in Indiana

Terms To Know

Consumer Reporting Agency

A company that collects and shares information about how people manage their money, like paying bills on time.

Third Party Furnisher

An organization that sends debt information to credit reporting agencies on behalf of a health care provider.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill only applies to medical debts reported after June 30, 2026.
• It does not cover existing medical debt records before this date.

Official Summary Text

A BILL FOR AN ACT to amend the Indiana Code concerning trade regulation.
Exclusion of medical debt from credit scoring.

Current Bill Text

A BILL FOR AN ACT to amend the Indiana Code concerning trade regulation.

Exclusion of medical debt from credit scoring.

Prohibits a health care provider from reporting or furnishing to a consumer reporting agency any information related to health care debt owed or alleged to be owed by a consumer who resides in Indiana. Requires a health care provider to include in any contract entered into with a third party furnisher a provision that prohibits the reporting or furnishing to a consumer reporting agency any information related to health care debt owed or alleged to be owed by a consumer, including information concerning any delinquent account action taken with respect to health care debt. Prohibits a consumer reporting agency from recording or retaining in the file of a consumer any information that is: (1) related to health care debt incurred or alleged to be incurred by the consumer; and (2) reported to the consumer reporting agency after June 30, 2026. Provides that if a consumer reporting agency receives a request from a consumer to delete any record of health care debt maintained in the file of the consumer, the consumer reporting agency shall, not later than five business days after receiving the request, take all lawful and reasonable actions to delete from the consumer's file the record of the health care debt, regardless of when the health care debt was reported to the consumer reporting agency. Provides that a person who violates the provisions of this act commits a deceptive act.