Commercial Litigation Update

In June, Maine and Oregon joined a growing list of states that now prohibit the reporting of medical debt to a consumer reporting agency.

On June 9, 2025, the governor of Maine signed into law LD558, which amends the Maine Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit medical creditors, debt collectors and debt buyers from reporting a consumer’s medical debt to a consumer reporting agency. Under the Maine law, a “medical creditor” is defined as “an entity that provides health care services and to whom a consumer incurs medical debt or an entity that provided health care services to a consumer and to whom the consumer previously owed medical debt if the medical debt has been purchased by one or more debt buyers.” Additionally, the Maine law forbids consumer reporting agencies from reporting medical debt on consumer reports. Consumers whose medical debt is reported in violation of the new amendments can seek civil remedies against the medical creditor, debt collector, debt buyer, or consumer reporting agency that reported the medical debt pursuant to the Maine Fair Credit Reporting Act for actual damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and either treble damages or statutory damages depending on whether the violation was willful or negligent.

In its 2022 decision in Becerra v. Empire Health Foundation, for Valley Hospital Medical Center, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the phrase “entitled to [Medicare Part A] benefits” applied to “all those qualifying for the program, regardless of whether they are receiving Medicare payments for part or all of a hospital stay.” 597 U. S. 424, 445 (2022) (quoting §1395ww(d)(5)(F)(vi)(I); alteration in original).

In doing so, the Court left open the question of what it means to be “entitled to supplementary security income [SSI] benefits . . . under subchapter XVI.” §1395ww(d)(5)(F)(vi)(I).

Today, in Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Kennedy, the Court, in a 7–2 decision (with Justice Barrett writing for the majority and Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Sotomayor, dissenting), held “that a person is entitled to such benefits when she is eligible to receive a cash payment during the month of her hospitalization.” Today’s decision continues the unbroken string of losses that the petitioner hospitals have suffered in this litigation at both the administrative and judicial levels.

When hospitals and doctors treat patients who are injured in car accidents, the health care providers reasonably expect that their rights to be compensated for the care they provide will not be conditioned upon their willingness to participate in their patients’ personal injury lawsuits against allegedly negligent drivers. A common pleas Court in Ohio applied this sensible reasoning in a recent decision, dismissing a car-accident plaintiff’s attempts to force the hospital that treated her to participate in her lawsuit against the driver who allegedly caused the injuries ...