Minnesota Legislature Approves Bill To Prohibit Hospitals From Considering Patients’ Medical Debt Information in Treatment Decisions

The Minnesota Legislature last week approved a measure that would prohibit hospitals from considering a patient's medical debt when deciding whether to treat the patient, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Under the bill, a health care provider cannot share or obtain a patient's medical debt information until after treatment. Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) is expected to sign the bill.

Sen. Linda Scheid (D), a sponsor of the bill, said, "It hasn't been a problem here yet, but we do know that some companies were working on gathering that information to sell to health care providers" (Wolfe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/3).