Patient advocates call the move a huge advance, but they question whether medical debt should be on credit reports at all.
Starting Friday, the three major U.S. credit reporting companies will stop counting paid medical debt on the reports that banks, potential landlords and others use to judge creditworthiness. The companies also will start giving people a year to resolve delinquent medical debt that has been sent to collections before reporting it — up from six months previously.The companies say these moves will wipe out nearly 70% of the medical debt listed on consumer credit reports.
"These aren’t people who bought shoes they couldn’t afford," said Amanda Dunker, of the nonprofit Community Service Society ofBrooke Davis had about $1,300 in medical debt from a breast cancer scare that lingered for years on her credit report.resident said that made it difficult to rent an apartment, and she needed a co-signer for a car loan.The non-profit RIP Medical Debt relieved Davis’s debt last fall. But more health problems and the loss of a job have pushed Davis back into debt.
Thomas Crippen looks over paperwork after being treated at Denver Health's Adult Urgent Care Clinic. The agency, which monitors banks, lenders and other financial institutions, has noted that people often don’t have time to shop for the best price when they seek care and may have little control over the progress of a serious illness.
The agency said earlier this year it estimates that 58% of the debt in collections and on credit records is from medical bills, and past-due medical debt is more prevalent among Black and Hispanic people.John McNamara, an assistant director with the bureau, declined to estimate when the agency might make a decision. It could propose a rule, after hearing from all sides on the issue, that would end the practice.
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