---
type: "Bill"
title: "Hospitals - Financial Assistance and Collection of Debts - Policies"
description: "Hospitals - Financial Assistance and Collection of Debts - Policies"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2025"
identifier: "SB 981"
citation: "Maryland SB 981 (2025)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["A. Washington", "Beidle", "C. Jackson", "Gile", "Hayes", "Hershey", "Kramer", "Lam", "Mautz", "Ready"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 17
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-02-03"
last_action: "2025-05-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/60bdc64d-61fc-4154-9dea-29e51dee3271"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/sb0981?ys=2025RS&search=True"
source_hash: "39bdbc456db97e56d823c46d5b562822072d117bcd04cf47ef7abed6024a23be"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland SB 981 (2025) — Hospitals - Financial Assistance and Collection of Debts - Policies

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Chapter - Hospitals - Financial Assistance and Collection of Debts - Policies** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/Chapters_noln/CH_694_sb0981t.pdf)
2. **First - Hospitals - Financial Assistance and Collection of Debts - Policies** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/bills/sb/sb0981f.pdf)
3. **Third - Hospitals - Financial Assistance and Collection of Debts - Policies** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/bills/sb/sb0981t.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **121–11** (pass) · lower
- On Third Reading — **47–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- A. Washington — primary (person)
- Beidle — primary (person)
- C. Jackson — primary (person)
- Gile — primary (person)
- Hayes — primary (person)
- Hershey — primary (person)
- Kramer — primary (person)
- Lam — primary (person)
- Mautz — primary (person)
- Ready — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-02-03** First Reading Finance `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-06** Hearing 2/18 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2025-03-10** Favorable with Amendments Report by Finance `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-11** Favorable with Amendments { `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-11** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2025-03-12** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2025-03-13** Referred Health and Government Operations `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-13** Hearing 3/19 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2025-03-15** Hearing canceled
- **2025-03-15** Hearing 3/19 at 2:30 p.m.
- **2025-03-19** Hearing canceled
- **2025-03-19** Hearing 3/19 at 2:15 p.m.
- **2025-03-28** Favorable Report by Health and Government Operations `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-28** Favorable Adopted Second Reading Passed `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-31** Third Reading Passed `passage`
- **2025-03-31** Returned Passed
- **2025-05-20** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 694 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/60bdc64d-61fc-4154-9dea-29e51dee3271`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).