On January 7, the CFPB issued a final rule amending Regulation V. Among other things, the final rule prohibits credit reporting companies from including medical bills on credit reports sent to lenders and prohibits lenders from considering medical information. The rulemaking has been previously covered by InfoBytes here.

Under Regulation V, a creditor is prohibited from obtaining or using medical information in connection with the determination of the consumer’s eligibility (or continued eligibility) for credit, with a few explicit exceptions. The final rule eliminates the “financial information” exception that allowed a creditor to obtain and use medical information pertaining to a consumer in connection with a determination of the consumer’s eligibility or continued eligibility for credit. Further, the rule eliminates the exception that allowed creditors to obtain (and use) medical information that was provided by a consumer reporting agency in a credit report but where the creditor did not specifically request medical information. In addition, the final rule adds a new provision that permits a consumer reporting agency to include medical debt information only where the consumer reporting agency (i) has reason to believe the creditor intends to use the medical debt information in a manner that is not otherwise prohibited by the regulation; and (ii) has reason to believe the creditor is not otherwise legally prohibited from obtaining or using the medical debt information, including under State law.

The final rule is effective 60 days after publication to the Federal Register.