Delaware Senate Bill 8

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Completed Legislative Action
Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 16-1)
Status: Passed on September 11 2023 - 100% progression
Action: 2023-09-11 - Signed by Governor
Text: Latest bill text (Engrossed) [HTML]

This Act is the second substitute for Senate Bill No. 8. Like Senate Bill No. 8 and its first substitute, this Act protects patients from unfair debt collection practices for medical debt, including prohibiting large health care facilities from charging interest and late fees, requiring facilities to offer reasonable payment plans, limiting the sale of debt to debt collectors unless an agreement is made to keep protections in place, providing minimum time before certain collections actions may be taken, limiting liability for the medical debt of others, and preventing the reporting of medical debt to consumer credit reporting agencies for at least one year after the debt was incurred. Violations of the provisions of this Act are considered Prohibited Trade Practices and Consumer Fraud violations. Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill No. 8 differed from Senate Bill No. 8 as it required large health-care facilities to provide information to uninsured patients regarding eligibility and the application process for medical assistance. This information must be provided at the time of service or prior to discharge and again with each billing statement. It also created a minimum threshold for eligibility for payment plans, and it reduced the timeframe in which a bill under a payment plan may be first due. The first substitute also defined medical assistance and time of service, which were not defined in Senate Bill No. 8.

An Act To Amend Title 6 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Medical Debt.

Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos [D]	Rep. Kimberly Williams [D]	Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker [D]	Sen. Kyle Gay [D]
Sen. Stephanie Hansen [D]	Sen. Kyra Hoffner [D]	Sen. Russ Huxtable [D]	Sen. David Lawson [R]
Sen. Sarah McBride [D]	Sen. Nicole Poore [D]	Sen. Bryan Townsend [D]	Rep. William Bush [D]
Rep. Debra Heffernan [D]	Rep. Kendra Johnson [D]	Rep. Larry Lambert [D]	Rep. Eric Morrison [D]
Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton [D]

2023-06-30 - Senate - Senate Third Reading (Y: 21 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2023-06-29 - House - House Third Reading (Y: 25 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 16) [PASS]
2023-06-14 - Senate - Senate Third Reading (Y: 20 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 1) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2023-09-11		Signed by Governor
2023-06-30		Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES
2023-06-29		Passed By House. Votes: 25 YES 16 ABSENT
2023-06-29		Amendment HA 1 to SS 2 - Passed In House by Voice Vote
2023-06-29		Amendment HA 1 to SS 2 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
2023-06-20		Reported Out of Committee (Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce) in House with 3 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable
2023-06-15		Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee in House
2023-06-14		Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT
2023-06-14		Amendment SA 1 to SS 2 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT
2023-06-14		Amendment SA 1 to SS 2 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
2023-06-13		was introduced and adopted in lieu of SB 8

Type	Source
Summary	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=140603
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=130102&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB8
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=130342&legislationTypeId=6&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SS1forSB8
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=140603&legislationTypeId=6&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SS2forSB8
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocumentEngrossment?engrossmentId=36037&docTypeId=6
Roll Call	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#54633
Roll Call	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#55020
Roll Call	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/RollCall/GetRollCallVoteByRollCallId#55073