Cycle Up

FTC’s New Safeguards Rule Compliance Deadline Extended

The FTC’s Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information, the Safeguards Rule for short, requires covered entities to develop, implement and maintain an information security program with administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect customer information. While the rule was set to go into effect December 9, 2022, the FTC has extended the compliance deadline to June 9, 2023. Our Compliance and Information Security Teams have been diligently working to update our internal policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the new rule and continue our commitment to protecting our consumers’, clients’ and employees’ private information.

In the February edition of Cycle Up, we reported on the new rulings from the Federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that govern debt collection activities, including healthcare bad debt; these rulings become effective on November 30.

Generally, the changes address three main components:

Disclosures and Information:
Clarifies the information that a debt collector must provide to a consumer at the outset of debt collection communications, the actions the consumer may take in response and safe harbor provisions for collectors that comply with those requirements.

Legal Action Prohibitions:
The new rule also has a potential impact on social media management, where revenue cycle companies must make it clear on their social media pages how patients get their healthcare debt concerns addressed.

Credit Reporting Agencies:
Prohibits debt collectors from bringing or threatening to bring a legal action against a consumer to collect a time-barred debt.

Only bad debt collection activities are affected. In order to monitor and prepare for the new compliance rules, our internal, cross-departmental team has been working closely with legal counsel and industry experts to identify the changes and seamlessly implement them by the November 30 deadline for clients using our bad debt services.

We also have a social media compliance plan in place to include regulatory requirements around contacting Meduit for questions and resolutions.

For more information, please contact Jill Cloys, Meduit Director of Compliance at:
jill.cloys@meduitrcm.com or call 317-284-6480.