A Dramatic Reduction in Medical Debt in New York
When more and more New Yorkers began calling our health care helpline overwhelmed with medical debt, their stories revealed a crisis in New York’s health care system. In response, CSS deployed our proven model for change, combining direct service, rigorous research, and legislative advocacy to tackle the root causes of issues affecting New Yorkers.
That model fueled our #EndMedicalDebt campaign, a patient-powered effort that led to eight new laws in a four-year span. Our research documented the widespread impact of medical debt across New York State, showing how it disproportionately harms low-income households and communities of color. Through our direct service programs, we helped individuals navigate and reduce their own debt burdens. And through advocacy, we pushed for systemic solutions.
The results speak for themselves.
Since the campaign launched in 2019, hospitals and health facilities have virtually stopped suing patients over outstanding medical bills. The amount of medical debt lawsuits in New York has dropped by 99.8 percent. Meanwhile, the number of New Yorkers in medical debt collections has fallen by nearly 80% percent.
This is what systemic change looks like, and it shows what’s possible when people band together to make New York more equitable.
The #EndMedicalDebt campaign’s victories include:
- Updating the state Hospital Financial Assistance law to increase eligibility and discounts, eliminate asset tests, prohibit lawsuits against patients with income below 400% FPL, and require all hospitals to provide financial assistance.
- Reducing the statute of limitations for medical debt court cases from six years to three years.
- Cutting the judgment interest rate from 9 percent to 2 percent.
- Requiring all hospitals to use a unified hospital financial assistance form provided by the State Department of Health.
- Banning credit reporting agencies from collecting information about or reporting on medical debt.
- Stopping medical providers from garnishing patients’ wages or placing liens on their homes to collect medical debt judgments.
- Ensuring that emergency rooms comply with the no surprise billing protections under state law.
- Eliminating a loophole in the state’s surprise medical billing law that excluded some hospital bills.
- Requiring hospitals and their affiliated providers to notify patients in advance if they charge facility fees and banning the fees for preventive care.
- Eliminating cost-sharing for inhalers for state-regulated plans.
- Eliminating cost-sharing for insulin for state-regulated plans.
- A New York Times story that convinced Northwell Health to stop suing patients during the pandemic and rescind the 2,500 lawsuits it had already filed.
And we’re not done fighting. Currently, we’re advocating for the New York State legislature to include provisions from the Fair Pricing Act (to cap prices at a reasonable rate for low-complexity routine services) and the Primary Care Investment Act (to ensure that insurance carriers are spending more resources on primary care) in the final FY27 budget.
Visit our End Medical Debt campaign page to learn more about our efforts and what's on the horizon.
Learn more about our victories and the strategies we used for a successful campaign in "The Campaign to End Medical Debt: How New York Dramatically Reduced Patients’ Medical Debt Burden."
