Skip to content
Lavina Jahorina

lavina-jahorina.com

Lavina Jahorina

lavina-jahorina.com

Medical Bills in Your Credit History – Why Your Medical Credit Score is So Important

Toby Lambert, May 13, 2022May 13, 2022

The real pain of a hospital stay might not hit until long after you’re finished with medical care. Medical bills and your credit interact in complex ways, and medical bills can have serious repercussions if you don’t keep a close eye on your credit score.

Medical bills and your credit report

Utility companies, landlords, and lenders are the three primary sources of information that affect your credit report Hospitalist Billing Service. Late payments and missed payments may damage your credit rating, even if you’ve never had an unpaid bill go to a collection agency.

For other types of debt, late payments or missed payments only show up on your credit score if the debt is sent to a collection agency.

Therefore, the only way that a bill can affect your credit score is if an unpaid bill is turned over to collections. Should that happen, the collection agency reports the case to one or more of the credit bureaus. Once the agency makes its report, the black mark remains on your credit report for up to seven years, just as if it were any other unpaid bill.

How medical bills and credit collide

The current credit system doesn’t differentiate between defaults on medical bills and other credit mistakes. When lenders look at your credit report, they’ll see a collection action on your record, not the reason for the collection action.

The problem with hospital bills and credit is caused by the healthcare system’s billing practices. After you receive care, you may not be billed for all services at once. Instead, you receive partial bills from different departments within the same hospital. For example, you may not be billed for preliminary lab work until months after your care was completed.

If you have insurance, the complexity of medical bills increases, because now all of the paperwork is routed through your insurance carrier. In the byzantine world of hospital billing, the natural delay caused by dealing with the middle man, your insurance company, may cause portions of your bills to be sent to collections. Even an insured person can suffer a lower credit score because of a medical bill.

The future: Medical credit scores

Until recently, medical bills only affected your credit history if they were sent to a collection agency. However, the Fair Isaac Corporation is pairing with several other investors to develop a system to determine a discreet medical credit score.

The system, dubbed medFICO® by critics, would track payments made by patients receiving medical care. Based on that information, hospitals and other healthcare providers would be able to evaluate the likelihood of each patient’s non-payment.

This medical credit score is controversial, and critics are quick to point out potential flaws, should the system go into general use. Privacy issues, the opportunities to violate the Health Insurance Accountability and Portability Act (HIPAA), and medical identity theft are just a few of the potential difficulties forecasted.

To protect your credit history from medical billing errors, request a copy of your credit score, and check for credit mistakes caused by unpaid medical bills on a regular basis. Just as it is with your health, early detection of errors on your credit report can help prevent unwanted consequences.

Uncategorized

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

  • What You Need to Learn About Essential Oils

  • What Colour Shirt and Tie Go With a Grey Suit?

  • Top 10 Best Pc Microphone Stereo Or Mono Comparison

  • Lavina Jahorina: Top 10 Best Buy Custom Cars Comparison

  • Lavina Jahorina: Top 10 Best Buy Flower Crown Comparison

  • Top 10 Best Multiple Definition Of C Comparison

  • Lucky Brand Men’s M 65 Field Jacket

  • Blazers Jackets

  • White Golf Jacket Men

  • Top 10 Best Phlueger President Fishing Reel Comparison

  • Top 10 Best Slingshot Fishing Reels Comparison

  • On Washington: No Room for Debate: Senate Floor Fight Over Immigration Is a Bust So Far

  • Men Colored Denim Jackets

  • How to Make Carpet Cleaners Eco-Friendly

  • Lavina Jahorina: Top 10 Best Buy Massage Oil Singapore Comparison

  • Top 10 Best Trivets Granite Comparison

  • Mens Levi’s Military Jacket

  • Mens’s Alpha Trail™ Down Hooded Jacket

  • Top 10 Best Fly Fishing Reels In Fishing Comparison

  • Top 10 Best Spinning/spincast Fishing Reel Comparison

  • Top 10 Best Trivet Plant Stand Comparison

  • Sherpa Denim Jackets Men’s

  • Top 10 Best Fishing Reels Covers Abu Garcia Comparison

  • G Star Denim Jacket Mens

  • Daisy Duvet

  • Lavina Jahorina: Top 10 Best Schwinn Discover 700c Womens Bike Comparison

  • Top 10 Best Mens Jackets Near Me Comparison

  • Denim Jacket Vest for Men’s

  • Green Long Jackets for Men

  • Top 10 Best Mongod Command Not Found Comparison

©2025 Lavina Jahorina | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes