New American Banker report showcases comments from ACA Board member Jennifer Whipple, who served on the CFPB’s Small Business Review Panel, and CEO Scott Purcell on the potential impacts of the proposal, as well as concerns with bureau’s process and outdated research.
11/30/2023 10:45 A.M.
2 minute read
ACA International leadership, including CEO Scott Purcell and Board member Jennifer Whipple, recently spoke with American Banker reporter Kate Berry about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposals on medical debt credit reporting and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
In the article, both Whipple’s and Purcell’s comments shed light on how the proposal, which includes potentially sweeping changes to the FCRA, does not address the root of the issues in the health care system and lacks data-driven analysis needed for a rulemaking.
“The proposal is not addressing the issue the CFPB is trying to fix in terms of people having insurance billing or denial issues or unsupportable health care,” said Whipple, who served on the Small Business Review Panel for the proposal last month.
Purcell added, “It’s too important an issue not to study and not to use data-driven analysis.”
Whipple is president of Collection Bureau Services in Missoula, Montana. She shared that, based on her experience running an agency that handles health care receivables, “the CFPB’s message to consumers is that they do not have to pay their medical bills because there will be no impact to their credit. That kind of message … could result in some consumers thinking they don’t need to pay for health care coverage at all.”
The article also quotes Andrew Rodrigo Nigrinis, Ph.D., economist at Legal Economics LLC, and his economic analysis (PDF) showing the bureau has yet to study whether providers will react by refusing to provide credit and cutting consumers off from health services, or by raising prices on all consumers and hurting everyone. Providers may also windup requesting cash upfront for co-pays and deductibles, hurting low-income community members who can’t afford to pay those all at once, thereby reducing their access to health care.
The analysis was published leading up to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra’s testimony on Capitol Hill to present the bureau’s semiannual report to Congress with the House Financial Services Committee Nov. 29 and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Nov. 30.
In advance of the testimony, ACA outlined concerns with the CFPB’s proposal and other matters, urging Congress to look at the bureau’s actions, processes and statutory authority, ACA previously reported.
“In the past two years, the CFPB has undertaken a misguided public relations campaign to target the ARM industry’s compliant and beneficial collection activities, including most recently, through a proposal to make sweeping changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act,” Purcell said in a letter (PDF) to House Financial Services Committee leadership.
A similar letter (PDF) was also submitted to the Senate Banking Committee.
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