The Pennsylvania House passed House Bill 79 to prevent medical debt with a bipartisan margin (187-16). More than 1 million adults reported having debt associated with medical bills in collections, using a credit card to pay their medical bills or having made arrangements to pay using a payment plan.
HB 79’s co-prime sponsor Rep Arvind Venkat (D- Allegheny) introduced legislation with state Reps. Nate Davidson, Bridget M. Kosierowski, Andrew Kuzma, Jim Rigby Tim Twardzik, and State Representative Tarik Khan who is also a Nurse Practitioner practicing one day a week at Family Practice and Counseling Network in Philadelphia. “As a nurse practitioner, I’ve seen how crushing medical debt is for patients,” said Khan, D-Phila. “Our bill would help ensure people are aware of the financial assistance they’re eligible for while hospitalized, to help save them from going into medical debt in the first place.”
The bill would mandate the development of standardized, plain-language hospital financial aid forms, which would be shared with patients on intake and discharge, displayed on billing paperwork and posted publicly on hospital and state health websites.