Bills and help
Deal with medical debt and collections
Know your rights when a bill goes to collections or appears on your credit report.
Do this today
- Start a letter: Ask a collector to validate a debt Ask a collection company in writing to prove what it says you owe, and to pause collection while you appeal and check the bill.
- Read: Medical debt and your credit report 4 minute read. Unpaid medical bills can end up on credit reports. Here is how to check your reports, dispute mistakes in writing, and where to confirm today's rules, which are set by federal and state law.
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Put this step on My Plan
So you can come back to it, and keep your dates and calls in one place.
In brief
- 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.
More guides, tools and letters
More guides, tools, letters 8
Guides
- Medical debt and your credit report
Unpaid medical bills can end up on credit reports. Here is how to check your reports, dispute mistakes in writing, and where to confirm today's rules, which are set by federal and state law.
- Medical debt in collections
A medical bill in collections can still be questioned. Confirm it is real and yours, check it against your insurance paperwork, answer in writing, and see what help is still open.
Letters and scripts
- Letter or script
Ask a collector to validate a debt
Ask a collection company in writing to prove what it says you owe, and to pause collection while you appeal and check the bill.
- Letter or script
Dispute a medical debt on your credit report
Ask a credit reporting company to investigate a medical account on your report that is wrong, unsettled or still under insurance appeal.
- Letter or script
Offer to settle a medical bill
Offer a single payment to settle a medical bill in full, and ask for the agreement in writing before you pay.
Programs and services
- Program or service
An Arm and a Leg: First Aid Kit
An archive of articles and starter packs from the podcast An Arm and a Leg, including a starter pack on what to do if you are in collections for medical debt. General reporting on health care costs, not appeal steps.
From An Arm and a Leg
- Program or service
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: medical bills in collections and on credit reports
Federal consumer-bureau explanation of debt collection and credit reporting rules when a medical bill goes to collections, including surprise bills, with how to dispute and where to complain.
From Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Program or service
Dollar For hospital financial assistance help
A free nonprofit service that helps you apply to a hospital for financial assistance (also called charity care) that can reduce or erase a hospital bill. It is about hospital bills, not insurance denials.
From Dollar For
Questions to keep handy
- What exactly was denied, and under which part of the plan?
- What is my deadline, and what is it counted from?
- Where and how do I send my request, and how will I prove it arrived?
- Who decides, and can I ask for a faster decision?
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