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

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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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

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         5909--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                     March 22, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  RIVERA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed  to  the  Committee  on  Health  --  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
    21  a person by a general hospital licensed under  article  twenty-eight  of
    22  the  public  health  law  or a health care professional authorized under

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04741-05-3
        S. 5909--A                          2

     1  title eight of the education law who practices within a hospital, wheth-
     2  er or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment.
     3    § 246. Hospital medical debt relief program. 1. The commissioner shall
     4  establish  a  three-year  pilot program to provide hospital medical debt
     5  relief to eligible residents in the state.
     6    2.  Within  amounts  appropriated  therefor,  the  commissioner  shall
     7  contract  with  a not-for-profit organization to identify and cancel the
     8  hospital medical debt owed by eligible residents to hospitals and  their
     9  contracted  providers located within  the state, to the extent possible.
    10  Such not-for-profit organization shall enter into agreements with gener-
    11  al hospitals  in  the  state to identify  eligible  residents  utilizing
    12  patient  data provided by such participating hospitals  including, demo-
    13  graphic information, residents' zip codes, insurance  status  and payer,
    14  dates of service, balances still owed, and other  information  necessary
    15  to  identify an eligible resident. The not-for-profit organization shall
    16  retire such eligible residents' hospital medical debt by acquiring  such
    17  debt  through  purchase  or  receipt  as a donation from a participating
    18  general hospital and then cancelling such debt.  Any  such  purchase  of
    19  hospital medical debt shall be for an amount at or below the fair market
    20  value of such debt. All data sharing shall comply with the provisions of
    21  the federal health  insurance portability and accountability act and any
    22  other applicable state or federal law.
    23    3.  To  the  extent  possible, for general hospitals that have entered
    24  into an agreement under the program, priority shall  be  given:  (a)  to
    25  eligible  residents  whose  debt is eighteen months or older; and/or (b)
    26  who resides in the lowest-income zip codes.
    27    4. The not-for-profit organization shall  also  notify  each  eligible
    28  resident who has had a debt cancelled pursuant to the provisions of this
    29  section    that  their specific hospital medical debt has been cancelled
    30  and that the debt cancelation does not lead to income  tax   liabilities
    31  for  program  recipients. Such notice shall include a copy of the hospi-
    32  tal's financial assistance application and policy  pursuant  to  section
    33  twenty-eight hundred of this chapter.
    34    5.  Once a hospital medical debt has been cancelled, the participating
    35  general hospital or their third party agent, that reported the  hospital
    36  medical  debt  to the credit reporting agencies, shall inform the credit
    37  reporting agencies of such cancellation to ensure that the debt has been
    38  removed from an eligible recipient's credit report.
    39    6. The not-for-profit organization shall conduct an  outreach  program
    40  to  have  discussions  with  general hospitals about the benefits of the
    41  hospital medical debt relief program to patients, communities and to the
    42  hospitals themselves.   Such outreach  shall  first  be  initiated  with
    43  enhanced safety net hospitals as defined in section twenty-eight hundred
    44  seven-c of this chapter.
    45    7.  The  not-for-profit  organization  shall, in consultation with the
    46  department report annually on the progress and success of  the  hospital
    47  medical  debt relief program established pursuant to this section to the
    48  governor and the temporary president of the senate, the speaker  of  the
    49  assembly,  the  department,  and  the  chair  of the senate committee on
    50  health and the chair of the assembly committee on  health.  Such  report
    51  shall  be  published and publicly available on the department's website.
    52  Such report shall include but not be limited to:
    53    (a) the amount of hospital medical debt purchased and discharged under
    54  the program;
    55    (b) the number of eligible residents who  received  relief  under  the
    56  program;
        S. 5909--A                          3

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