§ 213-d.Actions to be commenced within three years; medical debt

CPLR 213-d sets a three-year deadline for a specific kind of debt-collection suit: an action on a medical debt brought by a hospital licensed under the Public Health Law or a health care professional licensed under the Education Law. The clock starts running from the treatment itself, not from a later billing date or missed payment, which gives patients a predictable end point for facing collection litigation over old medical bills.

That three-year, treatment-anchored rule is shorter than the general six-year period CPLR 213 sets for most contract debts, and it targets medical debt specifically rather than consumer debt generally. The legislature added this section in 2020, carving medical debt out of the ordinary contract-debt framework and giving it its own dedicated, patient-protective timeline.

Section 213-d sits alongside CPLR 214-i, which sets a similarly short three-year period for consumer credit transactions and bars stale debt from being revived by a later payment or acknowledgment. Together, the two sections reflect a broader legislative move toward shorter, more protective deadlines for debt collection against individuals.