Boston, MA – Today, following the announcement that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would move to eliminate medical debt from credit reports, the Biden-Harris administration released a fact sheet highlighting additional scrutiny the IRS will give to nonprofit hospitals to ensure they’re meeting their community benefit obligations. The fact sheet also urges states and municipalities to take more actions to ensure non-profit hospitals are screening patients for charity care and limiting aggressive debt collection practices.

Statement from Mona Shah, Senior Director of Policy and Strategy at Community Catalyst on the administration’s announcement regarding non-profit hospital accountability:

“We are pleased that the administration is listening to people, communities and advocates around the country who have shared their stories and experiences highlighting the role that non-profit hospitals are playing in the country’s medical debt crisis.

“There is a segment of non-profit hospitals receiving billions in tax breaks and prioritizing cashflow and profits instead over community health and wellness. By failing to screen for charity care, they are saddling families across the country with mountains of unnecessary medical debt that they collect through lawsuits, liens on houses and denials of future care.

“We look forward to partnering with the administration as well as organizations and individuals around the country in holding non-profit hospitals accountable to the communities they are obligated to serve and their tax breaks.”

Recent polling conducted by Community Catalyst of registered voters found:

  • 72% of voters favor obligating hospitals to directly inform patients of their payment options, including financial assistance.
  • 71% favor prohibiting hospitals from billing and collection practices that can lead to home foreclosures and bank account seizures.
  • 69% favor prohibiting hospitals from delaying or denying medically necessary care for patients that have not yet paid past medical bills.

Interested people can learn more about the role nonprofit hospitals play in the medical debt crisis here.

People can join the conversation about the role nonprofit hospitals should be playing in communities through a Soapboxx page.

Receive a medical bill that seems fishy? Our guide can help.

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About Community Catalyst:

Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, and a society where health is a right for all. We’re an experienced, trusted partner to organizations across the country, a change agent to policymakers at the local, state, and national level, and both an adversary and a collaborator to health systems in our efforts to advance health justice. We partner with local, state and national organizations and leaders to leverage and build power so that people are at the center of important decisions about health and health care, whether they are made by health care executives, in state houses, or on Capitol Hill. Together with partners, we’re building a powerful, united movement with a shared vision of and strategy for a health system accountable to all people. Learn more at communitycatalyst.org.