What Ohio Consumers Should Know About Medical Debt On Their Credit Reports
Unforeseen circumstances can cause you to incur medical bills despite having health insurance. An overnight stay at the hospital, urgent medical attention, or ongoing treatment can lead to costs that are hard to cover. In the past, failure to settle medical bills affected an individual’s credit score. However, new laws in credit reporting have changed the way some medical bills are reflected on credit reports. It is important for Ohio residents to know about these changes.
Recent changes to medical debt reporting
Some policies recently enacted by the top credit reporting agencies help minimize the effect of some kinds of medical bills on credit reports. Some paid medical collections are no longer reflected on reports, and it will take a certain amount of time for the agency to add an unpaid medical collection to the report. The purpose of this policy is to provide extra time for consumers to settle billing disputes, work with their insurance providers, or arrange payments without affecting their credit score.
Not all medical bills can be left off a person’s credit report. Unpaid collections that still meet reporting standards can remain on your report and affect your loan and mortgage applications or interest rate terms.
Errors can still occur
Medical billing tends to be more complex than many other forms of consumer debt. Processing delays with insurance, duplicate bills, coding mistakes, or misapplying payments to the wrong account can all lead to incorrect data being listed on the credit report.
Consumers need to look for errors like the following on the credit reports:
- Medical bills that are already paid
- Accounts that should have been deleted
- Collection accounts that are duplicates
- Accounts that belong to someone else
- Wrong balances
A minor mistake in reporting could end up hurting the person financially.
Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
There are provisions in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that protect the consumer in the event of an error on their credit report. The consumer has the right to raise an objection against any erroneous or inaccurate information at both the credit reporting agency and the information furnisher.
Once an objection has been raised, the credit reporting agency should investigate the matter reasonably and correct or delete any information that cannot be verified or is indeed erroneous.
If the credit reporting agency and/or the information furnisher do not adhere to the legal obligations laid out in the FCRA, there may be legal recourse available for the consumer.
Steps to protect yourself
There are several strategies that consumers in Ohio can adopt to ensure minimal issues arise as a result of medical debt:
- Check your credit report periodically
- Maintain documentation of payments made by insurance companies and your medical bills
- Take prompt action when you receive any collection letters
- If there is any inaccurate information, dispute it
- Save all correspondence relating to billing disputes
Talk to a Columbus, OH, FCRA Claims Attorney
Kohl & Cook Law Firm, LLC, represents the interests of Columbus residents who need to dispute accounts on their credit report. Call our Columbus FCRA claims lawyers today to schedule an appointment, and we can begin discussing your next steps right away.
