Medical Debt Relief Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Medical Debt Relief Act changes how medical debt affects credit. It defines medical debt as debt related in whole or in part to transactions, accounts, or balances arising from medical services, products, or devices. It replaces the Fair Credit Reporting Act rule for adverse credit information with a prohibition on reporting any adverse information related to medical debt, including medical debt placed for collection, charged to profit or loss, or subjected to similar action. It also removes medical-information exceptions in section 604(g). Within one year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director must amend 12 C.F.R. 1022.30 or a successor regulation to ensure creditors are prohibited from obtaining or using consumer medical debt information when deciding whether to extend credit.
Who Benefits and How
Consumers with medical debt benefit because adverse medical debt information would be excluded from credit reports. Patients whose bills went to collections benefit because collection, charge-off, and similar medical debt information could not be reported adversely. Borrowers applying for credit benefit because creditors could not obtain or use medical debt information in credit-extension decisions. Consumer credit advocates benefit from a statutory definition and CFPB rulemaking duty focused on medical debt harms.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Consumer reporting agencies must remove or suppress adverse medical debt information from consumer reports. Creditors must stop obtaining or using medical debt information when deciding whether to extend credit. Medical debt collectors lose leverage from credit-reporting consequences tied to unpaid medical bills. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rulemaking staff must amend Regulation V within one year.
Key Provisions
- Adds a Fair Credit Reporting Act definition of medical debt.
- Prohibits adverse credit reporting for medical debt placed in collection, charged off, or similarly treated.
- Removes medical-information exceptions in FCRA section 604(g).
- Requires CFPB to bar creditors from obtaining or using medical debt information in credit decisions within one year.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to define medical debt, remove adverse medical debt information from consumer reports, narrow medical-information credit provisions, and directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to amend Regulation V within one year so creditors may not obtain or use medical debt information when deciding whether to extend credit.
Key Policy Areas
Consumer Credit, Health Care, Medical Debt
Primary Purpose
Amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to define medical debt, remove adverse medical debt information from consumer reports, narrow medical-information credit provisions, and directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to amend Regulation V within one year so creditors may not obtain or use medical debt information when deciding whether to extend credit.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Consumers with medical debt
- Patients with collection accounts
- Borrowers applying for credit
- Consumer credit advocates
Identified Costs
- Consumer reporting agencies
- Creditors using medical debt
- Medical debt collectors
- CFPB rulemaking staff
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMs. Williams of Georgia (for herself, Mr. Correa, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, …
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Borrowers applying for credit, Consumer reporting agencies, Consumers with medical debt
Positive-direction: Borrowers applying for credit, Consumers with medical debt
Negative-direction: Consumer reporting agencies, Creditors using medical debt
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology