The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is targeting illegal practices among medical debt collectors. The practices include “double-dipping” to get paid for services covered by insurance, harassing consumers to pay “fake or exaggerated charges,” misrepresenting consumers’ rights to contest bills, and collecting debts without documenting that the amount is owed, according to a Tuesday (Oct. 1) press release.
New laws taking effect in Minnesota Tuesday include new debt collection rules and a requirement that a health provider can’t deny necessary treatment because of outstanding debt. There are also new requirements on information that must be disclosed about long-term disability insurance policies.
On September 24, California enacted a series of consumer protection laws, including three bills aimed specifically at restricting certain debt collection practices in connection with medical debt reporting, civil actions for money judgments, and commercial debt collection.
Another day, another story about a court refusing to enforce a third-party lead. In Hall v. Schwartz, 2024 WL 4335509 (S.D. Oh. Sept. 27, 2024) the defendant had purchased a third-party Medicare lead from the Leads Warehouse for Medicare. The Defendant had used a pre-recorded greeting to initiate the contact and then a live agent was to join the call.
Digital Federal Credit Union and First Tech Federal Credit Union have announced plans to merge, the credit unions said in a Monday (Sept. 30) news release. If the merger is approved by the National Credit Union Administration and First Tech’s membership, the new credit union will be worth $28.7 billion and have nearly 2 million customers across eight states, the companies said in the release.
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