Sponsors (6)
Official title: Amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of medical debt on a consumer report, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 29, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress July 29, 2025
The bill improves credit access and medical privacy for people harmed by medical bills but reduces lenders' access to medical‑debt data, creating risks of higher borrowing costs, model disruptions, and implementation expenses that may be passed to consumers.
Consumers with medical debt (especially low-income, uninsured, and chronically ill people) will no longer have adverse medical‑debt entries on their credit reports, improving credit scores and access to loans and other credit.
Patients who accumulate medical bills (notably those with chronic conditions) will face less long‑term financial harm from credit reporting, reducing barriers to housing, employment, and financial stability.
Consumers' sensitive medical information will be better protected because medical‑debt exceptions that allowed broader disclosure and use are restricted, strengthening medical privacy and limiting third‑party access.
Lenders will have less medical‑debt information to assess risk, which may lead them to tighten underwriting or raise interest rates and fees, increasing borrowing costs or reducing credit availability for some consumers (including middle‑class households).
Furnishers, consumer reporting agencies, lenders, and regulators (CFPB) will incur implementation and compliance costs to change systems and monitor the transition, costs that may be passed on to consumers or absorbed by institutions.
Removing medical‑collection data could make credit scoring models less predictive, prompting greater use of alternative data that raises privacy and fairness concerns and could indirectly increase default risk or unequal outcomes.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Removes adverse medical-debt information from credit reports and bans creditors from using medical-debt data in credit decisions.
Removes medical-debt information from consumer credit reports and stops creditors from using medical-debt data when deciding whether to extend credit. It amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to categorically exclude adverse information related to medical bills from consumer reports and directs the CFPB to issue a regulation within one year barring creditors from obtaining or relying on medical-debt information in credit decisions. The changes primarily affect consumer reporting agencies, entities that furnish or obtain consumer reports, creditors that evaluate loan applications, and people with medical debts (especially low-income and uninsured patients). The FCRA amendments take effect at enactment; the CFPB must issue a conforming rule within one year.