Sources checked October 19, 2026 · Brillant Enterprises
What the state's 2024 law covers, where federal rulings cloud it, and how to check each medical item on your three reports by date, amount and status.
What the law says
The Louisa Carman Medical Debt Relief Act, P.L.2024, c.48 (codified at N.J.S.A. 56:11-56 and following), was approved on July 22, 2024. Its credit reporting rule is Section 3, two sentences long:
“a. A medical creditor or medical debt collector shall not report a patient's medical debt to any consumer reporting agency for health care services performed on and after the effective date of P.L.2024, c.48 (C.56:11-56 et seq.).
b. A consumer reporting agency shall not make any consumer report containing a patient's paid medical debt or a medical debt of less than $500 regardless of the date it was incurred.”
“Consumer reporting agency” is the law's term for a credit bureau such as Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. The law defines medical debt as debt from health care services, which it spells out to include dental and vision care, ambulance and other medical transport, lab work, drugs and equipment. It does not count debt charged to a general credit card, a home equity or general purpose line of credit, secured debt, an insurance payment the patient kept, veterinary bills, or cosmetic procedures that are not medically necessary (Section 2).
Check your report
Find every medical collection on your Equifax, Experian and TransUnion reports. For each one, note the date of care, the original balance, whether it is paid, and who reported it. Then find its row below.
| What you see on the report | What P.L.2024, c.48 says | Status | What to do next |
|---|---|---|---|
| A medical collection you have paid, from any date | Section 3(b): a credit bureau may not issue a report containing a patient's paid medical debt, regardless of when it was incurred. | Clear in the text | Dispute it with each bureau that still shows it. The three bureaus also say they stopped reporting paid medical collections on July 1, 2022. |
| An unpaid medical debt under $500, from any date | Section 3(b): a credit bureau may not issue a report containing a medical debt of less than $500, regardless of when it was incurred. | Clear in the text | Dispute it. The bureaus' own policy since April 2023 removes medical collections with an initial reported balance under $500. |
| Unpaid, $500 or more, for care on or after July 22, 2025 | Section 3(a): the provider or collector may not report it to a credit bureau. Every reading we found covers care from this date. | Clear in the text | Dispute it with the bureau and the company that reported it, and consider a complaint to the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs. |
| Unpaid, $500 or more, for care between July 22, 2024 and July 21, 2025 | Section 3(a) covers care “on and after the effective date.” Most published readings put that date at July 22, 2024; one law firm reads it as July 22, 2025. | Readings differ | Note the date of service and keep the bill. Ask the collector in writing who reported it and when; get legal advice if the amount matters. |
| Unpaid, $500 or more, for care before July 22, 2024 | Section 3 does not reach it: 3(a) covers later care, and 3(b) covers only paid debts and debts under $500. | Outside NJ's ban | It can stay if it is accurate. Check every detail anyway: balance, dates, owner of the debt, and whether insurance should have paid. |
| Any medical debt while an insurance appeal is pending | Section 6(b), in force since July 22, 2025: once the creditor or collector that reported it learns of a pending appeal, or that the debt was paid, it must tell the bureau to delete it. | Clear in the text | Send the collector proof of the appeal or payment, and dispute the item with each bureau that shows it. |
Law text: P.L.2024, c.48, Sections 3, 6 and 9. Bureau policies: the joint Equifax, Experian and TransUnion release of April 11, 2023, which also says unpaid medical collections wait one year before they appear. The federal rulings below may limit how the state rules apply to credit bureaus.
The federal picture
Pages written in early 2025 say a federal rule would remove medical debt from credit reports. That rule never took effect. Here is what happened since, from the primary documents.
July 11, 2025
In Cornerstone Credit Union League v. CFPB (E.D. Tex., No. 4:25-cv-16), Judge Sean D. Jordan granted a consent judgment that the January 2025 rule (90 Fed. Reg. 3276) exceeded the Bureau's authority, and ordered it “SET ASIDE and VACATED.” The opinion also says that “any state law purporting to prohibit a CRA from furnishing a credit report with coded medical information would be inconsistent with FCRA and therefore preempted.” The case was about the federal rule, not New Jersey's law.
Read the memorandum opinion and order (govinfo.gov)October 28, 2025
Its interpretive rule (90 FR 48710) says the Fair Credit Reporting Act “generally preempts State laws that touch on broad areas of credit reporting,” and argues that a state ban on medical debt appearing on a report should be preempted. The same document says it “does not have the force or effect of law.” Courts decide preemption.
Read the interpretive rule (Federal Register)August 10, 2026
According to the National Consumer Law Center's update of September 21, 2026, CDIA v. Paxton (W.D. Tex.) held that federal law preempts a Texas law barring the reporting of certain surprise medical bills, while rejecting the claim that all state rules on report contents are preempted. The same update notes that the federal appeals court for Maine read preemption narrowly in 2022. We could not read the 2026 opinion itself.
Read NCLC's summarySection 3 is still in New Jersey's statutes, and we found no court ruling on New Jersey's law itself as of October 19, 2026. New Jersey sits in a different federal circuit from Texas and Maine, so none of those rulings binds a New Jersey court. What the bureaus actually report for New Jersey residents is the practical test, so read your own reports rather than assuming either way.
The rest of the law
Under Section 9, Sections 4 to 6 took effect one year after enactment, on July 22, 2025; Section 7 took effect immediately. They govern how providers and collectors act, so they matter whatever happens on the reporting question.
No collection action, and reporting to a credit bureau counts as one, until 120 days after the first bill and after the patient is offered a reasonable payment plan.
Section 4(a); definition of collection action, Section 2
At least 30 days before any collection action, the patient gets another bill and a notice naming the action and the date it starts.
Section 4(b)
Every collection communication must say, in at least 14-point bold type, that the debt has not been reported to a credit bureau and that any portion reported is void.
Section 4(c)
A medical creditor or collector may not charge more than 3% a year on a medical debt, including on a court judgment.
Section 5(a)
No garnishing the wages of a patient whose annual income is below 600% of the federal poverty level.
Section 5(b)
Any portion of a medical debt furnished to a credit bureau in violation of the act is void. Only the state Attorney General enforces the act; it gives no private right to sue on its own.
Section 7(a) and 7(d)
Dispute steps
The FTC says you can check each bureau's report for free once a week at AnnualCreditReport.com. Medical items can differ from one bureau to the next.
Date of service, original balance, paid or unpaid, and the company that reported it. Add any insurance appeal and its date. Your bills and insurance explanation-of-benefits letters hold most of this.
The FTC says to dispute with each bureau that has the mistake and with the business that reported it, that the bureau has 30 days to investigate, and that corrections are free.
Only New Jersey's Attorney General enforces this law. If you believe a provider or collector broke it, file a consumer complaint with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs, part of the Attorney General's office.
Save every letter, receipt and bureau response, then pull fresh reports to confirm what changed and what is still open.
Where Brillant Credit fits
Brillant Credit is a Montclair-based credit repair service working with clients across New Jersey. The work starts from all three reports: items that are inaccurate, outdated or unverifiable, medical collections included, are disputed with the bureaus and the companies that reported them. Accurate, lawfully reported debts stay on the report.
No one, including Brillant Credit, can promise a deletion, a score change or a timeline, and you can always dispute errors yourself for free; the FTC's credit repair guidance explains your rights before you hire anyone. If a medical item looks like it was reported against New Jersey's law, bring the dates and amounts to the call and go through it with Armand's team.
Medical debt questions
Each answer comes from the law's text or the federal documents linked on this page. This guide is educational and is not legal advice.
Sometimes. New Jersey's law, P.L.2024, c.48, bars medical providers and collectors from reporting medical debt for care given on or after the law's effective date, and bars credit bureaus from reporting paid medical debt or medical debt under $500 from any date. An unpaid medical debt of $500 or more for earlier care can still be reported if it is accurate. Federal courts in Texas and the CFPB have said federal law overrides state limits like these, so check what your own reports actually show.
Part of it. Section 3(b) applies regardless of when the debt was incurred, so paid medical debt and medical debt under $500 should not appear on a report from a credit bureau. Section 6(b) also requires the creditor or collector that reported a debt to have it deleted once it learns the debt was paid or that an insurance appeal is pending. An unpaid medical debt of $500 or more for care before the effective date is not covered by the ban.
The law was approved on July 22, 2024, and Section 9 says Sections 3 and 7 took effect immediately, with the rest one year later. Section 3 bans reporting for care performed on and after the law's effective date. Orrick, Stevens & Lee and Frier Levitt read that as care on or after July 22, 2024; Holland & Knight wrote July 22, 2025. If your date of service falls between those two dates, treat it as unsettled and get advice for your case.
No court ruling we found has struck down New Jersey's law. On July 11, 2025, a federal court in Texas vacated the CFPB's national medical debt rule, and in the same opinion wrote that a state law prohibiting a credit bureau from furnishing a report with coded medical information would be preempted. In October 2025 the CFPB issued a non-binding interpretation saying federal law generally preempts state credit reporting laws. New Jersey's law is still in the state's statutes, but how far it reaches credit reports is contested.
The law does not ban lawsuits, but it counts a lawsuit as a collection action. A medical creditor or collector must wait 120 days after the first bill, offer a reasonable payment plan, and give 30 days' written notice before suing. It may not sue while it knows an insurance appeal is pending, may not charge more than 3% interest a year, and may not garnish the wages of a patient earning less than 600% of the federal poverty level.
Generally yes. The law limits reporting and collection actions; it does not cancel the debt itself. The exception is Section 7(a): any portion of a medical debt furnished to a credit bureau in violation of the law is void. Accepting a reasonable payment plan is not an admission that the debt is valid. This guide is not legal advice.
If a medical collection appears on the report a lender pulls, the lender can see it; the July 2025 federal opinion says federal law lets creditors consider properly coded medical debt information. Pull all three reports well before you apply, dispute anything inaccurate or reported in violation of state law, and plan around anything accurate.
Only items that are inaccurate, outdated or unverifiable can be disputed. The FTC says no one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report, and you can dispute errors yourself for free. Brillant Credit reviews all three reports and disputes what qualifies, including medical collections, and does not guarantee a deletion, a score change or a timeline.
Sources
Written by Brillant Enterprises LLC for New Jersey consumers. Laws and court rulings change; this page is educational and is not legal advice.
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Bring the dates and amounts of each medical item. Armand's team will tell you plainly what looks disputable, what is accurate, and whether paid help makes sense, with no outcome promises.