Dodd-Frank-enstein monster

The road was paved with good prevarications?

Two business lobbying groups this week called on the Consumer Financial Protection Board to investigate the medical funding industry after a Reuters investigation revealed that private investors are funding operations for women who have sued makers of surgical implants.

The American Tort Reform Association and DRI—The Voice of the Defense Bar told Reuters on Tuesday that medical funders take advantage of the people they claim to be helping.

Told Reuters without intending irony, no doubt. Business lobbyists want to use a Consumer agency, because they're concerned about the little people.

...medical funders profit by purchasing bills for the medical treatment of injured plaintiffs at a deep discount from health care providers, then claiming the full amount of the bill as a lien against the patient’s legal recovery through a settlement or verdict.

Essentially the funders finance operations and hope they'll eventually get paid by a malpractice insurer. Which those insurers object to;

“This is predatory lending – exactly what the CFPB was designed to prevent,” said [lobbyist] DRI president John Sweeney in an interview. [our bold in that sentence]

Funny that Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank forgot to mention that that was what the bill named after them, had exactly in mind. I.e., that one group of businessmen could use the CFPB to hobble another group of businessmen.

As the other side put it;

Medical lender Daniel Christensen of Austin-based MedStar Funding said in an email that industry participants are subject to certain state commercial or lending laws. He said patients’ attorneys also provide oversight.

“I am not in favor of regulation,” said Christensen, whose medical funding network was described in the Reuters investigation. “I am in favor of a person’s right to contract. If they want to take a settlement advance or if they want to obtain medical care on a lien, they should have the right to do so without the government telling them otherwise.”

 A government agency that's here to help the consumers;

The Bureau’s structure