Bill Description: House Bill 42 makes a temporary exception to one part of the flawed statute regulating the collection of medical debts. 

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Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?

House Bill 42 amends Section 48-313, Idaho Code, to allow "extraordinary collection efforts" to be undertaken for goods and services provided to a patient before  July 1, 2021. This permission applies even if "such party fails to satisfy the additional forty five (45) and ninety (90) day time periods" required by section 48-306, "as long as all of the other requirements" of the section "have been satisfied."

This change is very limited in both scope and duration, and it does not meaningfully reduce the unwarranted government intervention in the market that last year's "Idaho patient act" imposed on those seeking payment for the goods and services they provided to customers.

It is probable that this fundamentally flawed and deeply problematic statute will continue to need significant corrections lest it impose cataclysmic consequences on Idaho's economy. 

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