A law passed in New York last year sought to prohibit medical practices from requiring patients to sign consent-to-pay forms before receiving treatments or discussing costs.
But state officials, patient advocates and health professionals remain embroiled in a “tug-of-war” over the policy, according to a March 20 report from KFF Health News.
Here are 10 things to know about the controversy over consent-to-pay forms in New York:
1. Legal analysts have described the law as the first of its kind in the country.
2. Physicians, hospitals and other medical stakeholders have pushed back against the law, saying it will disrupt their practices’ workflow and payment logistics, particularly after services have been provided.
3. The state Department of Health delayed the start date of the law, falling in line with its pushback from many in the medical field. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget for fiscal 2026 would allow providers to return to requiring patients to agree to pay for care in advance of receiving treatment. It also clarified that the consent requirements would not apply to emergency care.
4. A provision from the original law that would remain in the new proposal would require providers to have a cost discussion with patients before the patient is asked to sign the form agreeing to pay for the service. Some consider this a “significant step,” according to KFF Health News.
5. “Providers having an affirmative obligation to discuss treatment costs is unique,” Gregory Mitchell, a partner in the health and life sciences practice group at McDermott Will & Emery law firm who specializes in managed care, told the news outlet.
6. Providers maintain that this requirement would pose a “significant burden” on their practices, as physicians and other patient-facing professionals often do not know specifics about patient deductibles, cost sharing or other insurance details until after a claim is submitted to a health plan.
7. Physicians contend that this puts them in a difficult position, as healthcare services cannot be returned or taken back once rendered. If a patient does not want to pay, the provider loses out entirely.
8. Patient advocates have pushed back on this. Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York, told KFF Health News that the current practice is “unfair” and “wrong.”
9. Other protections for consumer medical debts include the federal No Surprises Act, which restricts providers from billing consumers for out-of-network services in certain instances. It also requires providers to give good-faith cost estimates for self-pay patients.
10. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a final rule in January that would have removed medical debt from people’s credit reports, but the rule’s implementation has been frozen by the Trump administration.
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