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News Articles: Series: Diagnosis: Debt

A stethoscope sits on a pile of U.S. bank notes.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

New rules will ban medical debt from your credit report

The move, which comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, represents a challenge to the new administration.

January 07, 2025
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Elon Musk, who will have a role in the Trump administration to shrink government, tweeted "Delete CFPB" — that is the watchdog agency that has been working to protect people from medical debt.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

The fight against medical debt is pivoting to the states after Trump's election

Patient and consumer advocates fear a new Trump administration will scale back federal efforts to expand financial protections for patients and shield them from debt.

December 03, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Both candidates have health care records, but Donald Trump does not talk about his often on the campaign trail.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Harris backs slashing medical debt. Trump’s ‘concepts’ worry advocates

The Biden administration has taken significant steps to address the medical debt problem that burdens 100 million people in America, but gains would be jeopardized by a Trump win, advocates say.

October 16, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Samantha and Ariane Buck have struggled with medical debt for years, making it difficult at times to provide for their children. A ballot measure in their state of Arizona to cap interest rates on medical debt passed overwhelmingly, fueled by support from Democrats and Republicans.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Medical debt snares millions of people. States, red and blue are passing laws to help

State lawmakers from both parties are expanding protections for patients burdened by medical debt.

October 07, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Alexandra Vazquez works in the Phifer factory, a window screen manufacturer outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

These factory workers were swamped by medical debt. Then their employer stepped in

A decades-old manufacturing company opened a clinic and made primary care and prescriptions free for employees and their families.

September 18, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is working toward regulation to remove medical bills from consumer credit reports.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Why a financial regulator is going after health care debt

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the Great Recession of 2007-09, has increasingly started policing the health care system.

March 01, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle (center) announces the county's debt relief program, along with executives from several local hospitals and Allison Sesso, President & CEO of RIP Medical Debt (far left).

Tagged as: 

  • Health

A growing wave of local governments are erasing billions in medical debts

New York City joined other localities this week in pledging to buy up and forgive residents' unpaid medical bills. The trend started in Cook County, Ill., and is spreading around the country.

January 24, 2024
|
By:
  • Yuki Noguchi
McAlester Regional Health Center's administrative offices in McAlester, Oklahoma.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

In this Oklahoma town, almost everyone knows someone who's been sued by the hospital

U.S. hospitals face growing scrutiny over aggressive debt collection tactics. At one community hospital, few patients get financial aid when they can't afford to pay. Many more are taken to court.

January 19, 2024
|
By:
  • Mitchell Black and
  • Noam Levey
Kayce Atencio, who has been shadowed by medical debt for most of his adult life, had been unable to rent an apartment because of poor credit due to medical debt, he said. Recent reporting changes by credit rating agencies have removed many debts from consumer credit reports and lifted scores for millions, a new study finds.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

As some medical debt disappears from Americans' credit reports, scores are rising

Credit rating agencies have removed small unpaid medical bills from consumer credit, and some people are seeing their credit scores improve, a new study finds.

November 02, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Health advocates and community members gathered in Washington D.C. in mid September to push the Biden administration to take additional action on medical debt in an event hosted by nonprofit Community Catalyst.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Medical debt could soon be barred from ruining your credit score

The Biden administration unveiled regulations that potentially would help tens of millions of people who have medical debt on their credit reports.

September 22, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Kayce Atencio, who had a heart attack when he was 19, was unable to rent an apartment for years because of bad credit attributed in part to thousands of dollars of medical debt. "It always felt like I just couldn't get a leg up," says Atencio, one of millions of Americans whose access to housing is threatened by medical debt.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Medical debt nearly pushed this family into homelessness. Millions more are at risk

Saddled with debt from health care, many Americans are forced into painful tradeoffs. And some are losing their homes.

September 11, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
An analysis of court records by the state treasurer and Duke researchers finds Atrium Health in Charlotte, N.C., accounted for almost a third of the legal actions against North Carolina patients over roughly five years.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Hospitals sued thousands of patients in North Carolina for unpaid bills, report finds

The suits pursued patients and their families, sometimes putting liens on homes. "I know my house will never be mine. It is going to be the hospital's," said Donna Lindabury, 70, who lost her case.

August 17, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Delores Lowery was diagnosed with diabetes in 2016. Her home in Marlboro County, S.C., is at the heart of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls the Diabetes Belt.

Tagged as: 

  • Investigations

Many people living in the 'Diabetes Belt' are plagued with medical debt

More than half of the counties in the nation's so-called Diabetes Belt also have high rates of medical debt among their residents, an NPR analysis found.

May 12, 2023
|
By:
  • Robert Benincasa and
  • Nick McMillan
Doctors' offices often offer special medical credit cards as a solution to paying off large medical bills. But patients may end up paying far more for their bills when they have to pay interest down the road.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Biden administration warns consumers to avoid medical credit cards

Americans paid an estimated $1 billion in interest on medical debt in just three years, a federal agency finds. This includes use of credit cards often pitched in doctors' and dentists' offices.

May 04, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Marcus and Allyson Ward were paying off a debt dating back to the birth of their twins, Theo and Milo. They are among 100 million Americans with medical debt, according to a KHN/NPR investigation.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Medical debt affects millions, and advocates push IRS, consumer agency for relief

More than 50 consumer and patient groups want the Biden Administration to aggressively protect Americans from medical bills and debt collectors. The effort follows a KHN/NPR investigation.

March 07, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
  • Load More

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