Oregon program
Your rights on an Oregon medical bill
Oregon limits credit reporting, interest and collection practices for medical bills.
What it is
Oregon limits credit reporting, interest and collection practices for medical bills.
A bill in collections does not end the financial-assistance conversation. Oregon protects medical debt from credit reporting and limits some interest charges. The kind of bill and any court judgment affect which rules apply.
Eligibility rules
- These protections concern Oregon residents with medical debt. Responsibility for a relative's bill is a separate legal question.
What you get
- No interest for a patient who qualifies for full hospital financial assistance.
- Protection against medical debt appearing on a consumer credit report.
- Limits on pursuing family members who are not financially responsible for the bill.
What the help includes
- Before collecting or transferring covered medical debt, a hospital or its nonprofit affiliate must screen for assistance and provide the application. That does not mean the patient must already have completed an application, and a court response deadline remains separate.
- For covered hospital medical debt outside a court judgment, the interest ceiling is the weekly average one-year constant-maturity Treasury yield for the week before the initial bill, limited to a range of 2% to 5%. This is a ceiling, not a required minimum charge. The statute separately prohibits interest for the financial-assistance category it identifies; a court judgment follows the separate judgment-interest rule.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the social worker which billing or legal review fits the concern. The hospital or collector can supply the financial-assistance screening record in writing.
- Have the bills, collection letters and any credit report showing the medical debt ready for review.
Hospital billing or the collector; Oregon Division of Financial Regulation and Department of Justice consumer help. · Official page ↗
After you ask
- The hospital or collector can provide its screening record and explain disputed interest or reporting.
- Oregon's Division of Financial Regulation and Department of Justice accept consumer complaints.
Good to know
A payment arrangement does not waive your financial-assistance screening rights. A court judgment has different interest rules.
Other details
- Oregon currently bars reporting covered medical debt owed or alleged to be owed by an Oregon resident. General-purpose credit-card debt is excluded from this definition. The court-judgment rule concerns interest, not a general right to report the medical debt. A parent may still be legally responsible for a child’s bill; responsibility for another relative’s bill needs a separate legal check.
- For a bill from before 2024, ask the hospital or a legal adviser which rules were in force. A wrongly reported debt is still owed; the fix is a complaint, not a cancellation.
Official sources
“Do Oregon's debt protections affect any bill we are reviewing? What would a challenge or assistance review change, what would it leave unresolved, and could you help us choose the right route?”
Why I’m asking: I want to understand a bill's legal limits before agreeing to pay disputed charges.
More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules
Who does what
The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.
You
Put the question in writing and keep the reply.
Your social worker
The hospital billing office has to show the screening happened.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- Nobody; these are rights.
- Ask the billing office
- “Before this goes any further, please confirm in writing that we were screened for financial assistance, and note that Oregon does not allow medical debt to be reported to a credit agency.”
How to apply
First step: If a bill or a collection letter arrives, ask in writing whether you were screened for financial assistance first.
- If a collection letter arrives, ask in writing whether you were screened for financial assistance first.
- If medical debt shows on a credit report, say so in writing; Oregon bans it.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Write to the hospital or collector citing Oregon's medical debt rules and ask for the screening record.
What to gather
- Every bill and collection letter
- Your credit report if medical debt appears on it
How long: Immediate; these are rights, not an application.
What a yes looks like
A written confirmation of the screening, or the debt removed from a credit file.
What a no looks like, and the next move
If the hospital will not answer, the Division of Financial Regulation and the Department of Justice take consumer complaints.
Watch out
- Agreeing a payment plan does not give up your right to be screened for assistance.
- A court judgment can carry a higher interest rate than the ordinary cap.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
Medical debt stays off your credit file, interest is capped, and a family member who is not responsible for the bill cannot be chased.
- $0/year — Interest a hospital or collector may charge a patient who qualified for full assistance
- $2/year — Lower bound of the permissible interest cap for other patients
- $5/year — Upper bound of the permissible interest cap for other patients
Legal protection: Medical debt may not be reported to a consumer reporting agency · A consumer reporting agency may not include medical debt in a report · No interest for a patient who qualifies for full financial assistance · Before collecting or transferring covered debt, the hospital or nonprofit affiliate must screen and provide an assistance application; this does not require the patient to have completed it. · A patient's child or other family member who is not financially responsible cannot be chased
What it costs the family: None.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Who
- Oregon residents with medical debt
The trap: Ask for the financial assistance screening before you agree to a payment plan. A plan you agreed to does not remove your right to be screened.
Where I read this
- ORS chapter 646A: Medical debt — Oregon Legislature, read September 10, 2026
- ORS chapter 442: Hospital financial assistance — Oregon Legislature, read September 10, 2026
- Oregon Laws 2026 chapter 109 (HB 4040) — Oregon Legislature, read September 10, 2026