Medical Debt Interest Caps and Collection Restrictions by State
Since 2022, at least nine states have passed medical-debt-specific consumer protection statutes on top of ordinary debt-collection law: a cap on the interest rate a hospital or debt buyer may charge on medical debt, a minimum waiting period before debt can be sold or a suit filed, a ban on wage garnishment or a lien on the patient's home for medical debt, or a dollar floor below which a hospital may not sue at all. Each state uses a different mechanism and a different number, several were enacted or took effect in the last 12 months (Louisiana, Rhode Island, Virginia, Maryland, Maine, Colorado, New Jersey, New York), and the only free 50-state assembly (Commonwealth Fund, researched through June 2025) already predates most of them. A patient or advocate asking 'can they charge me interest on this hospital bill' or 'can they garnish my wages for this' gets a different, checkable, statute-backed answer depending on the state.
The data
| jurisdiction | interest rate cap | statute citation | wage garnishment restriction | property lien restriction | collection delay or suit restriction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | THREE PERCENT PER ANNUM | C.R.S. 5-12-102(5)(a) | |||
| Louisiana | three percent per annum | La. R.S. 51:1503 | |||
| Maine | 9-A M.R.S.A. Sec. 5-116-A(5), (6) (2026 Me. Laws ch. 649) | The garnishment of a consumer's salary or wages may not be issued for a judgment in any action in which the claim against the consumer is based on medical debt | An execution against a consumer's principal place of residence may not be filed for a judgment in any action in which the claim against the consumer is based on medical debt | ||
| Maryland | Md. Code, Health-General § 19–214.2(b)(6), (f)(2), (f)(4) | A hospital may not request a writ of garnishment of wages or file an action that would result in an attachment of wages against a patient to collect debt owed on a hospital bill if the patient is eligible for free or reduced–cost care under § 19–214.1 of this subtitle. | A hospital may not request a lien against a patient’s primary residence in an action to collect debt owed on a hospital bill. | Prohibit the hospital from filing a civil action to collect a debt against a patient whose outstanding debt is at or below $500 | |
| New Jersey | three percent per annum | N.J.S.A. 56:11-59, 56:11-60 (P.L.2024, c.48) | garnish the wages of a patient with annual income less than 600 percent of the federal poverty level to collect medical debt owed by that patient | until 120 days after the first bill for a medical debt has been sent and the creditor or debt collector has offered the patient who owes the medical debt a reasonable payment plan | |
| New York | N.Y. C.P.L.R. 5201(b), 5231(b) (2022 N.Y. Laws ch. 648) | wage garnishment due to money judgments arising from actions brought by hospitals or health care professionals | liens against their primary residence | ||
| Rhode Island | not less than one and a half percent per annum (1.5% p.a.) nor more than four percent per annum (4% p.a.) | R.I. Gen. Laws Sec. 6-26-11 | |||
| Virginia | three percent of the amount of such medical debt per annum | Va. Code Sec. 59.1-612 | Garnishing the wages of any individual qualifying for financial assistance under the financial assistance policy applicable to the underlying medical debt | 3. Foreclosing on an individual's real property; 4. Placing a lien on an individual's personal property | No medical creditor or medical debt collector shall take any extraordinary collection action until 120 days following the due date applicable to the final invoice for a health care service |
| Washington | RCW 70.54.470 | until at least one hundred twenty days after the initial billing statement for that medical debt has been transmitted to the patient or other responsible party |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 9 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- leg.colorado.govhttps://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2023a_093_signed.pdf
- legis.la.govhttps://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1481256
- legislature.maine.govhttps://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=SP0818&item=3&snum=132
- mgaleg.maryland.govhttps://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/Chapters_noln/CH_693_hb0268t.pdf
- pub.njleg.govhttps://pub.njleg.gov/Bills/2024/PL24/48_.HTM
- assembly.state.ny.ushttps://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A07363&term=2021&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Text=Y
- webserver.rilegislature.govhttp://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE6/6-26/6-26-11.htm
- law.lis.virginia.govhttps://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/59.1-612/
- app.leg.wa.govhttps://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=70.54.470
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.
From your own code
Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.
pip install refsource
refsource lookup medical-debt-collection-protections-by-state jurisdiction=Colorado
npx -y refsource lookup medical-debt-collection-protections-by-state jurisdiction=Colorado