Key points
- Medical bills that go unpaid can be reported to credit reporting companies. Whether and when depends on federal and state rules that change, so this page does not state a timeline.
- Check your reports, compare each medical entry with your bills and Explanation of Benefits, and dispute mistakes in writing.
- If an appeal or financial assistance changes what you owe, ask the provider or collector to correct the report, and keep proof.
- Confirm current rules with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a legal aid office.
A medical bill that goes unpaid can show up on your credit reports. Look at your reports, find the mistakes, and dispute them in writing. The rules about what may be reported, and for how long, are set by federal and state law and have changed over time. We do not state them here, so confirm them before you act.
What this means
A credit report is a record kept by credit reporting companies. A provider or a collection agency can tell those companies that a bill is unpaid. If the entry is wrong, because the amount is wrong, your plan should have paid, you already paid or the account is not yours, ask the credit reporting company and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau how to dispute it.
This page does not set out the credit reporting rules. It describes the practice. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) explains current federal rules on its site. State law may add to them, and Triage Cancer publishes charts of state laws that include spousal medical debt. If you are unsure, a legal aid office can confirm what applies to you.
Your insurance appeal and your credit report are linked. If the plan reverses a denial, or the hospital approves financial assistance, the amount on the report should change. The report does not fix itself. You may need to send proof.
What to do
- Get your credit reports (your step). Ask the CFPB how to get them. You want the report from each credit reporting company, because they can differ.
- Make a list of every medical entry. Write down the creditor or collector, the amount, the date and whether the entry says unpaid, paid or settled.
- Compare each entry with your own papers. Use your bills, your Explanation of Benefits and any letters. Look for amounts your plan paid or should have paid, duplicates, amounts that are higher than the bill, and accounts that are not yours.
- Ask the provider or collector to correct it first. If the account was paid, settled, adjusted by your plan or covered by financial assistance, ask in writing for the entry to be corrected, and ask for the confirmation.
- Dispute the entry in writing with the credit reporting company (your step). Use the credit report dispute letter. Name the entry, say what is wrong, and attach proof. Keep a copy and a record of when and how you sent it.
- Dispute it with the collector or provider too. The company that reported the entry may be able to correct it. The debt validation request asks the collector to document the debt.
- Check again after the dispute. Ask for the result in writing and look at the report again. Save it.
- If you settle or set up a plan, ask how the account will be reported. Dollar For’s collector script includes asking whether the account has been reported. Get the answer in writing before you pay. See negotiating a bill.
What the other side may say, and what to say back
“We reported what the hospital told us.” Please ask the hospital to confirm the amount and the status in writing. I am disputing this entry and I have attached proof.
“You owe it, so it stays.” Please send me proof of the debt, including the original provider, the dates of service and an itemized statement. My plan’s statement shows a different amount.
“The appeal is not final.” Please mark the entry as disputed while the appeal is open, and tell me in writing how it is shown on my report.
What the law does not settle here
Rules on credit reporting of medical debt are set by federal and state law and change. Read the current rules at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and ask a legal aid office to confirm how they apply to you.
Watch for
- Self-pay disputes. If you were uninsured or paying yourself and use the federal patient-provider dispute process for a bill well above your good faith estimate, the provider must not move the bill into collection while the dispute is pending. See good faith estimates.
- Financial assistance and paid bills. Dollar For reports that a refund may be owed if you paid a bill that is later forgiven. Ask the hospital to fix the credit report entry as well.
- Companies that promise to clean up your credit. Ask who does the work, how they are paid and what they send for you. See paying for help.
- Deadlines you cannot see. Ask the CFPB how long a credit report dispute takes and what deadlines apply.
What next
- Medical debt in collections: what to do when a collector is calling.
- Legal aid and when to hire a lawyer: free and paid ways to get a lawyer’s view.
- Deal with medical debt and collections: all the pages on this topic.