Minnesota hospitals are no longer allowed to collect debts from patients until they have screened them for charity care eligibility due to a new law that went into effect Nov. 1.
The law states that hospitals must determine whether a patient can receive charity care after completion of the screening process. Additionally, hospitals cannot offer loans or repayment plans to patients until they put them through the charity care screening process.
Yolanda Pierson, a patient at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, testified in March about her experience of going into collections, unaware she was eligible for charity care, according to the Star Tribune.
Mayo Clinic told the Star Tribune that its charity care policies comply with the new law.