SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1417        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 843

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act to Prevent Unscrupulous Medical Debt Recovery Practices..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.    Subsection (i) of section 18 of Chapter 118G of the General Laws, as amended by section 354 of Chapter 26 of the Acts of 2003, is hereby amended by inserting at the end thereof the following sentence:-

The division shall adopt regulations prohibiting a hospital or community health center or an agent of a hospital or community health center from seeking legal execution against the personal residence up to the statutory amount provided for in chapter 188 of the general laws, irrespective of whether a patient or a guarantor for a patient has recorded a declaration of homestead, or the primary motor vehicle of a patient or a guarantor for a patient.