Debt Collectors Challenge CFPB’s New Rules on Medical Bills (1)

A recent advisory opinion by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concerning the collection of past-due healthcare bills violates the Administrative Procedure Act, debt collectors assert in a new federal lawsuit.

The rule is part of the Biden Administration’s recent effort to keep medical debt from drastically impacting a patient’s credit. But the plaintiffs say that the advisory opinion, issued Oct. 1, inserts “debt collectors into the private healthcare decisions made between patients and their providers.”

The nonprofit group ACA International LLC and debt collector Collection Bureau Services Inc. say in their petition filed Nov. 1 in the US District Court ...