The group held a series of stakeholder meetings to draft hospital debt collection and payment plan guidelines under a new Maryland medical debt law.
08/26/2022 11:30 A.M.
1.5 minute read
Maryland’s Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) published its proposed regulation related to hospital debt collection practices in the Maryland Register on Aug. 26.
This comes after a series of stakeholder meetings held earlier this spring to review 15 total draft guidelines before presenting updates to the HSCRC commission, ACA previously reported.
The purpose of the stakeholder meetings was to help the HSCRC provide additional clarity and guidance while conforming to the requirements of the state’s new medical debt law, SB 514. The group included consumer advocates, health care providers, state regulators, consumer representatives and financial services industry members.
Leslie Bender, IFCCE, senior attorney at Eversheds Sutherland LLP, was a member of the HSCRC stakeholder group, representing ACA International and the Mid-Atlantic Collectors Association.
Under the Maryland law, a hospital must annually submit its policy on the collection of debts owed by patients as well as a specified report to the HSCRC. The HSCRC must compile these submissions into an annual medical debt collection report.
The proposed regulation is open for public comments through Sept. 26, 2022. Comments can be mailed to Dennis Phelps, Deputy Director, Audit and Compliance, Health Services Cost Review Commission, 4160 Patterson Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21215. You can also call (410) 764-2565, email [email protected], or fax comments to (410) 358-6217.
Read more about the Maryland law and other states implementing medical debt laws in Collector magazine.
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