Bill Text: NY S05909 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended


Bill Title: Establishes a three-year pilot hospital medical debt relief program to provide hospital medical debt relief to eligible residents of the state utilizing a not-for-profit organization to identify, acquire and cancel medical debt of such eligible residents directly from health care providers in the state.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-01-22 - REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE [S05909 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S05909-Amended.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         5909--B

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                     March 22, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by Sens. RIVERA, BROUK, MAY -- read twice and ordered print-
          ed, and when printed to be committed to the  Committee  on  Health  --
          committee  discharged,  bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
          recommitted to said committee -- reported favorably from said  commit-
          tee and committed to the Committee on Finance -- committee discharged,
          bill  amended,  ordered  reprinted  as amended and recommitted to said
          committee

        AN ACT to amend the public health law and the tax law,  in  relation  to
          establishing a pilot hospital medical debt relief program

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may  be  cited  as
     2  the "hospital medical debt relief act".
     3    §  2.  Article  2  of the public health law is amended by adding a new
     4  title 2-G to read as follows:
     5                                  TITLE 2-G
     6                    HOSPITAL MEDICAL DEBT RELIEF PROGRAM
     7  Section 245. Definitions.
     8          246. Hospital medical debt relief program.
     9    § 245. Definitions. As used in this article, the following terms shall
    10  have the following meanings:
    11    1. "Eligible resident" means an individual that  meets  the  following
    12  conditions:
    13    (a) is a resident of the state;
    14    (b)  has  a  household  income at or below four hundred percent of the
    15  federal poverty guidelines or has hospital-based medical debt  equal  to
    16  five percent or more of the individual's household income; and
    17    (c) has had hospital medical debt relieved under this program.
    18    2.  "General  hospital medical debt" means an obligation or an alleged
    19  obligation of an eligible resident to pay any amount whatsoever  related
    20  to the receipt of health care services, products, or devices provided to

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04741-07-3

        S. 5909--B                          2

     1  a  person  by  a general hospital licensed under article twenty-eight of
     2  the public health law or a health  care  professional  authorized  under
     3  title eight of the education law who practices within a hospital, wheth-
     4  er or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment.
     5    §  246.  Hospital  medical  debt  relief program. 1. The commissioner,
     6  subject to general fund appropriations for this purpose, shall establish
     7  a three-year pilot program to provide hospital medical  debt  relief  to
     8  eligible residents in the state.
     9    2. Pursuant to sections one hundred twelve and one hundred sixty-three
    10  of  the  state  finance law, the commissioner shall contract with a not-
    11  for-profit organization to identify and cancel the hospital medical debt
    12  owed by eligible residents to hospitals and their  contracted  providers
    13  located  within   the state, to the extent possible. Such not-for-profit
    14  organization shall enter into agreements with general hospitals  in  the
    15  state to identify eligible residents utilizing patient data provided  by
    16  such  participating hospitals  including, demographic information, resi-
    17  dents' zip codes, insurance   status    and  payer,  dates  of  service,
    18  balances  still owed, and other  information  necessary  to  identify an
    19  eligible resident. The not-for-profit  organization  shall  retire  such
    20  eligible residents' hospital medical debt by acquiring such debt through
    21  purchase  or receipt as a donation from a participating general hospital
    22  and then cancelling such debt. Any such  purchase  of  hospital  medical
    23  debt  shall  be  for an amount at or below the fair market value of such
    24  debt. All data sharing shall comply with the provisions of  the  federal
    25  health    insurance  portability  and  accountability  act and any other
    26  applicable state or federal law.
    27    3. To the extent possible, for general  hospitals  that  have  entered
    28  into  an  agreement  under  the program, priority shall be given: (a) to
    29  eligible residents whose debt is eighteen months or  older;  and/or  (b)
    30  who resides in the lowest-income zip codes.
    31    4.  The  not-for-profit  organization  shall also notify each eligible
    32  resident who has had a debt cancelled pursuant to the provisions of this
    33  section  that their specific hospital medical debt  has  been  cancelled
    34  and  that the debt cancelation does not lead to income  tax  liabilities
    35  for program recipients. Such notice shall include a copy of  the  hospi-
    36  tal's  financial  assistance  application and policy pursuant to section
    37  twenty-eight hundred of this chapter.
    38    5. Once a hospital medical debt has been cancelled, the  participating
    39  general  hospital or their third party agent, that reported the hospital
    40  medical debt to the credit reporting agencies, shall inform  the  credit
    41  reporting agencies of such cancellation to ensure that the debt has been
    42  removed from an eligible recipient's credit report.
    43    6.  The  not-for-profit organization shall conduct an outreach program
    44  to have discussions with general hospitals about  the  benefits  of  the
    45  hospital medical debt relief program to patients, communities and to the
    46  hospitals  themselves.    Such  outreach  shall  first be initiated with
    47  enhanced safety net hospitals as defined in section twenty-eight hundred
    48  seven-c of this chapter.
    49    7. The not-for-profit organization shall,  in  consultation  with  the
    50  department  report  annually on the progress and success of the hospital
    51  medical debt relief program established pursuant to this section to  the
    52  governor  and  the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the
    53  assembly, the department, and the  chair  of  the  senate  committee  on
    54  health  and  the  chair of the assembly committee on health. Such report
    55  shall be published and publicly available on the  department's  website.
    56  Such report shall include but not be limited to:

        S. 5909--B                          3

     1    (a) the amount of hospital medical debt purchased and discharged under
     2  the program;
     3    (b)  the  number  of  eligible residents who received relief under the
     4  program;
     5    (c) to the extent practicable  the  characteristics  of  the  eligible
     6  residents;
     7    (d) the number of individual debts purchased;
     8    (e) total number of eligible residents by zip code;
     9    (f) the number of individual debts purchased by zip code;
    10    (g) the number of individual debts canceled by county separated by the
    11  federal  poverty  line  as  defined  and  annually revised by the United
    12  States department of health and human services for a  household  of  the
    13  same size, as follows: (i) two hundred percent and below, (ii) above two
    14  hundred  percent  up to three hundred percent, (iii) above three hundred
    15  percent up to four hundred percent, (iv) above four hundred percent; and
    16    (h) any other data or information requested by the department and that
    17  can be included pursuant to applicable laws and regulations  and  within
    18  budgeted resources.
    19    8.  The commissioner shall promulgate any rules and regulations neces-
    20  sary for the implementation of this section.
    21    § 3. Subsection (i) of section  601  of  the  tax  law  is  relettered
    22  subsection (j) and a new subsection (i) is added to read as follows:
    23    (i)  Hospital  medical  debt relief. Notwithstanding the provisions of
    24  subsections (a), (b),  (c)  and  (d)  of  this  section  and  any  other
    25  provision  of this article, for taxable years beginning after the effec-
    26  tive date of this subsection,  the  income  of  an  individual  received
    27  pursuant  to  the  provisions  of  section  two hundred forty-six of the
    28  public health law in the form of debt cancelation shall be  exempt  from
    29  tax  under  this article regardless of whether such income is subject to
    30  federal income taxation.
    31    § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    32  it shall have become a law.  Effective immediately, the addition, amend-
    33  ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
    34  tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be  made  and
    35  completed on or before such effective date.
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