Patient Protection Act

The Patient Protection Act governs the relationship between patients, health care providers, and the entities that arrange and pay for care, and it addresses how governmental health programs fit within those protections. It restricts the terms that may appear in health care provider contracts, prohibits exclusive arrangements, requires disclosure of information about health care providers, and bars retaliation, backed by enforcement provisions and a nonpreemption clause that preserves protections available under other law. A further set of provisions concerns medical debt: requiring a policy for the collection of medical debt, limiting the denial of health treatment or services because of an outstanding medical debt, and addressing billing errors.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.