Skip to main content
CivicGate

S 4622
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

PATCH Act

To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of medical debt on a consumer report, and for other purposes.

Introduced May 21, 2026

Latest action (May 21, 2026) Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Referred to
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
Policy area
Finance and Financial Sector
Issues
Economy & Taxes

Summary

This bill would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit medical debt from appearing on consumer credit reports. Medical debt would be defined as debt arising from the receipt of medical services, products, or devices. The bill would prevent creditors from considering medical debt information when deciding whether to extend credit to consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would be required to update regulations within one year to ensure creditors are prohibited from obtaining or using medical debt information in lending decisions.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)
  1. May 21, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. · senate
  2. May 21, 2026 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • S 2519 — Medical Debt Relief Act of 2025 · Introduced Jul 29, 2025 · Cong. 119 85%
  • HR 4827 — Medical Debt Relief Act of 2025 · Introduced Jul 29, 2025 · Cong. 119 82%
  • HR 9639 — FAIR Credit Act · Introduced Jul 21, 2026 · Cong. 119 70%
  • SJRES 141 — A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to the withdrawal of the rule relating to "Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F); Deceptive and Unfair Collection of Medical Debt". · Introduced May 13, 2026 · Cong. 119 67%
  • HJRES 167 — Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to the withdrawal of the rule relating to "Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F); Deceptive and Unfair Collection of Medical Debt". · Introduced Apr 30, 2026 · Cong. 119 66%
  • SJRES 148 — A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to the withdrawal of the rule relating to "Bulletin 2022-01: Medical Debt Collection and Consumer Reporting Requirements in Connection with the No Surprises Act". · Introduced Mar 26, 2026 · Cong. 119 66%

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 21, 2026

Mr. Kennedy introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

A BILL

To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of medical debt on a consumer report, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Protecting Americans from Treatment- related Credit Harm Act” or the “PATCH Act”.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT.

(a) Medical Debt Defined.—Section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a) is amended by adding at the end the following: “(bb) Medical Debt.—The term ‘medical debt’ means a debt arising from the receipt of medical services, products, or devices.”.

(b) Exclusion for Medical Debt.—

(1) In general.—Section 605(a) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)) is amended by striking paragraph (6) and inserting the following:

“(6)(A) Any adverse information related to a medical debt, including a medical debt that was placed for collection, charged to profit or loss, or subjected to any similar action.

“(B) Nothing in subparagraph (A) may be construed to prevent a consumer reporting agency from collecting the information described in that subparagraph.”.

(2) Technical and conforming amendments.—Section 604(g) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681b(g)) is amended—

(A) in paragraph (1)—

(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph

(A), by striking “(other than medical contact information treated in the manner required under section 605(a)(6))”;

(ii) in subparagraph (A), by adding “or” at the end;

(iii) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking “; or” and inserting a period; and

(iv) by striking subparagraph (C); and

(B) in paragraph (2), by striking “(other than medical information treated in the manner required under section 605(a)(6))”.

SEC. 3. MODIFICATION OF REGULATIONS RELATING TO PROHIBITIONS ON USE OF MEDICAL DEBT INFORMATION.

(a) Definitions.—In this section, the terms “credit” and “creditor” have the meanings given those terms in section 702 of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691a).

(b) Requirement.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection shall amend section 1022.30 of title 12, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation, to ensure that creditors are prohibited from obtaining or using information relating to the medical debt of a consumer in determining whether or not to extend credit to that consumer. <all>

Comments

Comments

Loading comments…