The three main credit bureaus in the United States have announced new medical debt reporting measures that are expected to remove nearly 70% of medical collections from consumer credit reports.
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion said in a joint statement Friday that medical debt that was sent to collections but paid off will be removed from credit reports rather than being kept on them for up to seven years.
The credit bureaus also said they would increase the time consumers have to pay unpaid medical bills before they are sent to collections and included on credit reports from six months to a full year.
Those changes are expected to become effective on July 1, according to the credit bureaus.
Additionally, starting in the first half of next year, the company will no longer include medical debt under $500 on credit reports.
The move was praised by President Joe Biden in a statement made to Twitter, crediting the move to a report last month from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“This is a step in the right direction, thanks to @CFPB,” Biden said. “We’ll keep fighting for consumers – from increasing transparency to preventing surprise billing and more.”
The CFPB report said that medical debt is the most common collection tradeline reported on credit reports but that medical debt collections were “less predictive than non-medical collections of future credit performance.”
“Medical debt can also lead people to avoid medical care, develop physical and mental health problems, and face adverse financial consequences like lawsuits, wage and bank account garnishment, home liens, and bankruptcy,” the CFPB report reads.
“Given the widespread impact of COVID-19, addressing medical debt is an urgent priority.”
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Do they want a dog biscuit?
I guess any improvement at all is better than none, but I have held a long-standing belief that credit bureaus are not your friend. In their eyes, delinquency is delinquency—regardless of how it happened. Someone victimized by a job loss or unexpected medical expense are viewed in the same way as those who are just irresponsible. And why does it have to be three of them? They all three get the same information, but you can realistically have three different credit scores and sometimes there is a big difference between them. It seems to me that their purpose is to keep the little guy over a barrel. And good luck disputing anything.
I remember one guy, who iirc had to spend almost 8 MONTHS arguing and doing paperwork wITH THOSE credit companies all because of THREE concurrent bills he had set up via AUTO PAY (so it was done online transaction wise), had a Computer glich that said “HE HAD NOT paid”, but he had NOT JUST the bank record of it being paid, BUT THE COMPANY CREDITS HIS BILL as being paid.. However the algorythm or what ever, that reported “PAID accounts” to the credit bureaus, for some smucked up reason, listed him as being delinquent for 3 straight months…
EVEN THE company that DID the web-bill-pay, got ONTO the credit bureau, to show “HEY< we had a GLITCH, he is good".. AND IT STILL TOOK Him 8 months to get it corrected…
So, no i don't trust them.
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” – C.S. Lewis
Pain is God’s megaphone to call the corrupt back into cleanliness. Then in comes the new God government who seeks to be worshiped by all who covers the unclean acts of the individuals they seek to socially enslave, to take away the pain that is designed to correct them, and their victims just stay addicted to the love and immediate gratifications offered by this demented Government god of human fallibility, and the long-term pain and destruction continues to build. Who and what you turn to in times of trouble defines who and what you worship. Good luck with Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Pocahontas, Bernie self-chosen deities. This latest move by socially conquered woke Credit reporting companies is just one more prelude to the kiss of secular Socialist death, by a thousand cuts, and human spirit of accountability debilitating laws.