A. All bills sent from a health care facility, third-party health care provider or medical creditor to a patient shall include a complete and plain-language description of the date, amount and nature of all charges; if the patient is verified as having health insurance; if the health care facility screened the patient for programs that assist with health care costs; and if the health care facility or third-party health care provider has billed or will bill insurance or public programs that may assist with health care costs for the services provided. Prior to initiating communication with a consumer or a collection action over medical debt, a medical debt collector shall have all billing information required in this subsection as allowed under the provisions of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.B. In communications with a consumer about medical debt, including communication related to collection actions, a health care facility, third-party health care provider, medical creditor or medical debt collector shall inform the consumer of the availability of the information required pursuant to Subsection A of this section and offer to provide that care provider, medical creditor or medical debt collector shall inform the consumer of the availability of the information required pursuant to Subsection A of this section and offer to provide that information to the consumer; provided that the information required pursuant to this section need only be provided to a requester once every thirty days.History: Laws 2021, ch. 31, § 6. ANNOTATIONSEffective dates. — Laws 2021, ch. 31, § 14 made Laws 2021, ch. 31, § 6 effective July 1, 2021.
New Mexico Legal Code