Professional Credit, Shaping the Future: 2024 Insights, 2025 Initiatives

From groundbreaking innovations to strategic growth, see how 2024 shaped our path forward.

• Strategic Acquisition: Our first acquisition in the healthcare vertical has expanded our customer base, geographical reach, and team expertise.
• AI Virtual Agent Launch: Our new AI virtual agent now manages inbound calls 24/7, providing payment arrangements and self-service options for customers.
• Cloud Migration: Near completion of migrating all data to the cloud, enhancing system reliability and operational flexibility.
• New Partnerships: We’ve expanded our portfolio by partner with leading organizations in the healthcare industry.
• Winning Back Business: We successfully reestablished a partnership with a valued client after demonstrating our commitment to service excellence and consistently exceeding expectations.
• Exceeding Goals: We met our internal revenue and performance benchmarks, reinforcing our ability to invest in innovation, enhance services, and continue delivering value to our clients in 2025.

Some 2024 Highlights

Expanded Call Centers: To better serve our clients, Professional Credit and Ensource has expanded its call center across the United States. In addition to call centers in Oregon, Texas, and Florida, in 2024 we added call centers in Arizona and Iowa. The goal of this expansion has been to improve national coverage while giving us the flexibility to obtain the best talent to meet our clients’ needs.

Regulatory Changes: 2024 brought quite a few regulatory updates at the National, State, and Local levels. While many of these regulations came suddenly and unexpectedly, we at Professional and Ensource have been diligent at informing our clients of these changes and managing any new requirements that may impact our clients and the work we do for them. This is a commitment you can expect from us for any future regulatory changes.

Client Tools Grid Implementation: One of the great enhancements to Client Tools in 2024 was the implementation of the data grid which presents key information in a format that is easy to filter and sort. The feedback from our clients on this addition has been extremely positive, with one user stating, “This is INCREDIBLE. Thank you for constantly improving our experience.”

We are excited for 2025. As part of our commitment to you, we are continuing to work on enhancements that will bring the best experience to you and your clients/patients. Here are some exciting things to watch for in 2025.

What’s New & What’s Next: 2025 Client Tools Enhancements

• MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication): In January of 2025, MFA will be active on all Professional Credit and Ensource Client Tools. This important update will add an important security layer to the valuable data that we share in client tools.
• Call Transcripts: In early 2025, call transcripts will be added to the notes section in client tools. Professional Credit and Ensource clients will soon have the option to not only listen to a call, but users will have the ability to read the transcript in the notes section of Client Tools.
• Recovery Specialists AI-Driven Instructions: Coming in 2025, Professional Credit is implementing an AI-driven tool that will present important regulatory and client-specific work instructions to our recovery specialists based on the account they are working. This enhancement should improve recovery times, efforts, and efficiencies.

As always, we want to thank you for your trust in us. We are honored to work with every one of our amazing clients and want you to know that we are endlessly committed to providing you with the greatest recovery while protecting your image in the communities that you serve.

Innovations Benefiting You:

• AI Advancements:
  • Grace 2.0: Enhanced AI bot now identifies consumers by name, client account number, and other identifiable information.
  • Robbie: Outbound AI bot now accepts payments and transfers Right Party Contacts to agents.
• Improved Processes:
  • Updated phone exhaustion techniques and TIERed work efforts to boost consumer contact rates.
  • Agent-assisted RPA bot significantly reduces dispute resolution times while maintaining security.

Transparency and Efficiency Gains:

• Launching the PRO Score (Professional Revenue Optimization) by pairing proven account segmentation with machine learning for enhanced recovery and reduced disputes.

Meet Lisa Burton:
We’re excited to introduce Lisa Burton, our new Director of Client Experience, who will ensure we continue delivering outstanding service and support to our clients.

CFPB Medical Debt Advisory Opinion

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued an advisory opinion on medical debt collection, which it also described as an “interpretive rule.” The effective date of that advisory opinion/interpretive rule was January 2, 2025. According to the CFPB, the advisory opinion/interpretive was intended to serve as a reminder to debt collectors of their responsibilities under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Regulation F. The CFPB expressed particular concern that some debt collectors may be:

1. Attempting to collect invalid debts,
2. Misrepresenting legal obligations, and
3. Failing to verify the legitimacy of medical debts before collection.

The CFPB emphasized that debt collectors are accountable for errors made by their creditor-clients, even if the errors are unintentional. If a debt is mistakenly sent to collections—for instance, due to unreported payments or adjustments—the collector may violate the FDCPA by trying to collect it. Noting the complexities of medical billing, the CFPB suggests that medical debt collectors should take extra steps to ensure the debts are valid before pursuing collection. This may include substantiating debts before starting the collection process, as well as auditing the healthcare providers’ accounts to ensure compliance with any legal requirements (i.e. charity care/financial assistance, the No Surprises Act, and state workers’ compensation laws).

Notably, there have been two lawsuits filed by the medical debt collection industry challenging the validity of the advisory opinion/interpretive rule. Also, President Trump recently fired the Director of the CFPB, and his replacement has not yet been named. While the fate of the advisory opinion/interpretive rule is uncertain, many in the debt collection industry expect that some of the states will step in and pick up any perceived slack that results from a change in leadership at the CFPB.

CFPB Medical Debt Credit Reporting Rule

The CFPB has indicated throughout the past few years that it does not believe medical debt should be eligible to appear on consumers’ credit reports. As a step in that direction, the CFPB published a final rule on January 7, 2025, which would have the practical effect of banning medical debts from appearing on credit reports. The rule is currently scheduled to become effective March 17, 2025, but two lawsuits have been filed seeking to prevent the rule from going into effect.

State Changes (NYC, OR Exemption Increases, CA Medical Debt Credit Reporting)

New York City Debt Collection Rules

New York City recently adopted amendments to their rules relating to debt collection. Those rules were scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2025, but the City has recently announced that it will be delaying the effective date until at least October 1, 2025. Also, the City has announced that it is going to re-release the rules for a second round of public comments, with the hope of addressing some of the concerns expressed by the industry. The expected changes include new disclosure requirements, limits on frequency of communications with consumers, new rules related to handling disputes and providing verification of debt, and new requirements related to the collection of medical debts.

For instance, the amendments are expected to introduce a requirement that debt collectors provide verification of a debt within 45 days of receiving a consumer’s dispute. If verification cannot be obtained from the creditor and provided to the consumer during that time period, the debt collector would be required to send the consumer an “Unverified Debt Notice.” That notice would advise the consumer that the debt collector was unable to provide timely verification of the debt, and, as a result, the debt collector would not be able to continue to collect the debt in the future.

With respect to medical debt, there would be new requirements that would apply where the debt collector has any reason to believe that the debt should have been eligible for financial assistance. In those instances, the debt collector would be required to take immediate corrective measures, including notifying the creditor within one business day that the account may be subject to the covered entity’s financial assistance policy. The debt collector would also be required to send written notification to the consumer that a financial assistance policy may apply to the medical debt. New York City would also make it a prohibited practice to include a medical debt in a consumer’s credit report.

Oregon Exemption Increases

Effective January 1, 2025, there were changes to certain exemptions under Oregon law. Those changes increase the minimum wage exemption that is applicable to wage garnishments, with steady increases scheduled over the next few years until the state will adopt a formula of 30 times the state minimum wage. There was also a change to introduce a minimum protected account balance that will apply to any bank garnishments. Going forward, a consumer must have full and customary access to at least $2,500 in their accounts with a particular financial institution. That means that a judgment creditor planning to issue a garnishment to a judgment debtor’s financial institution will only be entitled to receive nonexempt funds in excess of that $2,500 amount. Lastly, the homestead exemption increased from $40,000 (or $50,000 for married persons) to $150,000 (or $300,000 for married persons).

Medical Debt Credit Reporting in California

Effective January 1, 2025, California joined a growing list of states to prohibit the inclusion of medical debt on consumers’ credit reports. With some uncertainty surrounding potential legal challenges to the CFPB’s medical debt credit reporting rule, we expect to see other states pass similar bans during their 2025 legislative sessions.

Disclaimer: The information provided above is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The information is not intended to be a full and exhaustive explanation of the law in any area, nor should it be used to replace the advice of your own legal counsel.