On May 16, the Illinois legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 2933. The bill amends the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act making it unlawful for a consumer reporting agency (CRA) to create a consumer report containing any adverse information that the CRA knows or should know relates to medical debt incurred by the consumer or a collection action against the consumer to collect medical debt. The bill would also make it unlawful for a CRA to maintain a file on any consumer containing information relating to medical debt. The bill is currently awaiting Governor Pritzker’s signature.
The bill defines “medical debt” as “a debt arising from the receipt of health care services, products, or devices.” “Medical debt” does not include any debt charged to a credit card or an open-end or close-end extension of credit made by a financial institution to a borrower unless that extension of credit may be used solely to purchase health care services.
If SB 2933 is signed, Illinois would be yet another state to remove medical bills from consumer reports, joining California, Colorado, New York, and Minnesota. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also beginning a rulemaking process to remove medical bills from credit reports. These efforts follow a 2022 announcement that the three largest CRAs would stop reporting medical debt under $500 and any paid-off medical debt.